Dad and I went for a walk to find Casper. He disappears when we’re gone and doesn’t know when we’re back. He worries me sometimes the way he goes out in the woods and lately he’s been farther and farther past the lake. The one fall when one of our cats disappeared we’d started seeing her across the lake. We looked for her for two months but she never came back and we never found her remains.

We didn’t find him. We got back around 2PM and the food bowls were empty. On the way past County Market we stopped for a giant bag of cat food. Two to three days isn’t long to leave cats. Thankfully there were a few people around who could get in through the office and let them in and out while we were gone.

After the meet we drove to Forest City where my brother and sister-in-law live. We’d never been to their house and figured while we were out there we should take advantage of the chance to go see them. It was a fun time and there was plenty of room for all of us. I always feel bad making people wash sheets either before or after we come or maybe even both. You just hate to be extra work for people.

But I think it’d be even weirder to be like, “Hey, I’m just going to bring my sheets and put them over your bed so you don’t need to clean up from me.” When we were helping after the knee surgery, the daughter-in-law and I did just that. They had this guest room with an Alexa hooked up that functioned as an intercom system throughout the house. That’s how she would get a hold of us and let us know from the other room.

That wasn’t weird though because we just decided that’s what we were going to do. After all was said and done I don’t think a soul thought twice or cared. There is the work of hosting others but there is also the joy in it. I felt again inspired to come home and clean and make my house a sanctuary. There’s a reason hospitality was emphasized so much in the Bible. But what that reason is I do not think I’d exactly know.

I know it’s a way we care for others and a way God cares for the world. Sometimes we’re the hosts and sometimes we are the travelers. The hotel where we stayed on Friday was nice and a nice one always feels like a blessing. We had a “suite” with pullout couch and two queens, with a kitchenette and extra floor space. No need for pack-n-plays or crunched quarters, I thought of the days when they again were all young.