How do you make it through a wild weekend that includes one daughter’s dance rehearsals, another’s soccer games, your son’s performance in Hamlet, and your husband’s installation as a Head of School, all while celebrating your own 30th reunion from high school?

Peter’s best friend—and Penny’s godfather—flew in from Richmond for a weekend that involved as much chauffeuring our kids around Northwest CT as it did hanging out with grownups. My two best friends from high school not only showed up but reminded me that there are people who have known me and loved me for exactly who I am, and not who I sometimes pretend to be, for over three decades. My aunt and uncle also showed up to drive our kids places where we couldn’t be, and participated in an eclectic Mother’s Day brunch. And we got to finish it all off watching William perform.  

So how do you make it through? Kind of in the same way you make it through a white-water rafting trip. Be as prepared as possible, do what your guide tells you to do, lean on the other people in the boat with you, don’t be surprised if you get splashed with lots of cold water, and allow yourself to enjoy every minute of the ride.

MORE WITH AMY JULIA:

• BOOK: To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope
• Season of Waiting and Impossibility
• Saying Goodbye to their Childhood Home

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