One of the main lessons I’m learning on this trip is to be more in the moment. It’s so easy to be stuck in your mind and to miss what is right in front of you. I’m determined not to let that happen too much anymore. Especially now that I’m in Montana. Knowing that I can only stay two days with my grandparents this time, makes me want to enjoy each moment completely. The work e-mails are stacking up a bit and that’s a strong trigger for me to get stressed, but today I’m letting go of it and just be here. I wake up a few hours earlier than my grandparents and use the time to do some writing. When they get up we have breakfast together. It’s so peaceful to be here with them. My grandparents also like to think and talk about topics like mindfulness. After breakfast my grandpa is telling again how at any given moment your mind can be at three places: the past, the future or the present. When you think about things that happened in the past or when you worry about things in the future, you miss the only moment that you can actually live: Now.
In the morning we drive to my grandparents furniture store and I get to meet John, their son in law and a good friend, as well as their grandson Josh. It’s nice to see them again as well after three years. We talk about the store for a bit and I’m glad to hear that business is going well. A lot of people move to Montana these days and they need furniture. It’s not hard to see why people would want to move here. Montana has wide views, big mountains, friendly people and is a lot less crowded as other states in America.
While grandpa stays at the store for a while, grandma and I go to the city center to an old store called General Mercantile which is also a coffee place. We brought a Scrabble boardgame with us. Normally we play on our phones when I’m not here, but it’s more fun to play a real game. On the phone I have the advantage of just trying out words that I don’t know, but that’s not an option with the board game. For a while I’m ahead in score, but about half way the game my grandma takes the lead and wins victoriously. She’s a good looser, but a great winner and it’s always nice to see her extra happy when she wins. The rest of the day she tells it to about everyone we meet. We pick up grandpa again at the furniture store and go to a local restaurant for lunch. While we’re there, Abbie texts and asks if we want to have dinner together tonight. We come up with the idea to cook dinner for my grandparents and so we do groceries in the afternoon. We have their son Lucas with us and he’s very easy. He doesn’t complain while we stack the groceries around him in the shopping cart. Again now that I’m writing this, I realize that I didn’t take many pictures yesterday. I take it again as a sign that I’m just enjoying the moments while not thinking about the blog or other things. It’s nice to see Abbie with Lucas. It’s a whole miracle story how she and Brandon got him and I’m happy for them.
When we get back home and start cooking, Catie and Jackie are also coming over with their daughter Claire and it’s a fun and cozy gathering. We eat a tasteful and healthy chicken teriyaki meal for dinner and play some card games afterwards. The time goes by fast and when Catie and Jackie have left again, we watch one more funny tv show before going to bed. That’s something my grandparents and I have in common as well, we like to end the with something funny and some laughter. I enjoyed every moment of today.
