When I am 94 years old...

My maternal grandmother is 94 years old today!!

9 out of 10 of her children are in attendance, including my parents, besides numerous grandchildren, all the down to a couple of great-great-grandchildren. The celebration is at #6's home in the family village of Taputimu in American Samoa. This is the first birthday celebration I have missed in many years.

So it got me wondering if school is really worth missing out on this momentous occasion.

Tonight, as I think of the close fellowship with our matriarch, dedicatory worship and prayer, shared testimonies, practice for special items, flashes from over 20 cameras, new outfits or uniforms, heaps of food, tons of people, the cooling heat of twilight and the close of the summer season, the beauty of sunset by the sea visible through the den windows (if you're facing that way), waves crashing on the rocky shore (where most of us stand & slide backwards as the waves gently push without felling us), I would say no. It was not worth missing.

And then my siblings and cousins who were also unable to attend remind me, even now, that it was not an issue of finance that kept me from attending. It was education, and that, for the moment, is the greater good. No questions. And yes, I do have science classes with labs I am taking from the community college besides online school.

So of course my heart yearns for my grandmother and parents and hugs and family and food and the ocean and the island life that would have come with a trip to the South Pacific (recently termed the football island during a 60 minutes episode). To keep busy, my assignments are getting completed. My diet was especially healthy today. My journal of goals and to-dos got more ticks in the past few days than ever before. All in the hopes that if and when I am 94 years old, I will be as healthy, happy, missed, admired, loved, accomplished, and close to my heavenly Father as my grandmother - Fueainaula Lam Yuen - is today on her birthday.

Manuia lou aso fanau, Granny!! Alofa tele atu :)