Being Together

Mama Brown here.  NYC is crazy.  And dirty.  And loud. That is my assessment after the first week here. But I can keep up with the best (worst?) of the drivers.  I love it!

We've done a ton this first week, and we're tired out, especially from the heat.  There have been a couple of things that stand out in my mind tonight, and they center around family.  I guess it is pretty amazing that all 7 of us are here together.  A couple of days ago as I drove to Brooklyn's finest thrift stores in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood, we drove through an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.  In fact, it's the largest in the nation.  Block after block of men dressed in black topcoats with tall black hats and their "peyot," or side curls, and women dressed in black, white or gray.  We stopped at a bakery that advertised ice cream, which I had promised the three younger kids for tolerating thrift store shopping.  We ended up getting ice cream and very unique pastries.  The woman serving us, a traditional Jew, asked the typical, "Are all these children yours?"  When I said yes, she replied that large families are also common in their neighborhood.  (Google said the average family size in this neighborhood is 6.7.)  I told her that our community back in MN is Catholic, and our family size is very average.  In the end, we chatted about the blessing of large families.

Last night our young landlord, Gene, stopped by to see our AC unit which is broken.  He ended up staying and chatting with us for at least an hour.  What a sweet guy (who I can tell has his eye on Isabel).  He wanted to offer us any advice on NYC, including writing out his favorite walks in the city.  At one point he said to us:  "So, what is the secret of your family?  You are so unique!  You are all out here together? What is your secret?"  He told us that when his Russian immigrant family moved to NY, they completely fell apart.  I shared with him a bit about putting family first and all that entails (eg. insisting upon family dinner and time together -- he said that was the first thing his family lost.)  I shared with him how important our faith is, and how we are trying to go to Mass together everyday as a sort of pilgrimage.  I also told him what I like to tell the Confirmation students, that when you are young, you can look at the things you suffered (whether divorce or lack of faith), and choose to live differently.  Decide upon the values important to you and stake out a new path for yourself.  Anyway, another opportunity to share all that we have been given....