Love is Willingly Putting Yourself in the Splash Zone

Summer means sun, swimming, upper lip sweat, and family STUFF! Fill in whatever you want that encompasses the word [STUFF] ... [Stress] ... [Slapstick Scenarios] ... [Bonding] ... [Complications] ... [Miscommunications] ... [Preciousness] ... [Ambitious Agendas] ... [Buried Resentment]. Whatever it is, it's usually not simple, and usually filled with ironies. Time with family can leave you feeling both depleted AND filled. Both relieved AND concerned. Both connected AND far away. It's that quiet, turbulent head spin you get on the long plane ride back after spending a week with the family, or zoned out driving back from the airport after cohabitating with your parents for a handful of days. A seemingly small stay, and yet their scent (a mix of Kleenex dust and Jergens hand cream) still fills the rooms, and their PBS Masterpiece 1920s murder mystery is still in the queue. This is when I have the most confusing feeling of them all - you're glad they made it home to the comforts of their routines AND you miss them.

I wrote this blog in February 2023, Valentine's Day, after a long visit with my family combined with traveling with friends. One of my mom's favorite blogs and a perfect callback excerpt. Especially since we all seem to be in that summer stupor coming off a long family visit, big reunion, that annual National Lampoon Chelan trip. Whether it was an extended quality time with our blood-related family or our chosen family. In this case, it was an all-star cast of the humans in my life all in one city, actually an island, at the same time. They collided like one splishy-splashy event, full of ironies, where many conflicting feelings can exist at the same time.

Written February 14, 2023

I made it to a little slice of paradise, for the next 3 weeks anyway. I’m in Kailua which is my stomping/swimming grounds where I grew up. A magical tiny town that I love. Visiting family that I love. Traveling with close friends that I love. What a perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year. 

However much like my affection for this tiny town I’m from, love is complicated.  It shifts, it makes me proud and makes me sad, it fills up bumper to bumper and then empties out. Never totally empty or full, but in constant motion. Same with my beloved family I hardly get to see. My family as one unit provide a deep steady support, but on the surface there’s white caps. Complicated personalities and clashing currents coming from all different directions. I long for it when I look at it from afar but once I’m in it I can feel yanked around and need to take a breather.  They make me proud and make me sad. But again my love for my family never fully empties and never fully fills. It’s a constant changing current. 

The beautiful bond I have with the friends I arrived with is the same.  A love that’s always in motion. An inflatable pool that’s constantly in a slap happy, splish splashy, contained space. Navigating each other's quirks, routines, food preferences, tantrum triggers, coffee followed by bathroom schedules, and snort giggling through all of it under the same roof. 

This Valentine’s Day is also very unconventional since my Valentine got on a plane last night, off on a work shoot for a month.  There’s a relief in knowing no matter how full and overwhelmed my heart gets things, inevitably drain out and splash over the side. Then when the pool line gets low, I worry about being alone, I have a family and house full of people standing around me with a hose ready to refill it. Even through there are highs and lows, different waves of weak and strong -

love and support is ALWAYS there.

This week in the studio, let's embrace the ironies. I am tired AND I am motivated to work out. I feel frustrated with my body AND I'm proud of my body. I have no time for myself AND I should make myself a priority. Together, we will teeter and wobble through these conflicts, both physically and mentally. All I can say is, even though these feelings feel inconsistent, just know you are not alone in them and it's normal. We have these feelings because, in the end, we feel love for them. Love is knowing you will do something despite moments of discomfort. Love for spending time with friends, love for connecting and helping family... love for moving our bodies. It's knowing that even though there will be moments where you'll get splashed, it's worth getting close.

Excited to make your bodies sweat, smile, and willingly put yourself in the splash zone.

XO,

Celeste