The Noisy Village children’s series by Swedish born author @astridlindgrenofficial was one of my favorite’s growing up. 3 adult siblings and their families live in 3 farm houses on a plot of land in Sweden. The Farafar or Grandfather lives with one of the families. The cousins see each other every day, and share chores, meals, traditions, and life together. They all know Farafar well, visiting him daily to hear his stories and ask him for advice. All of the adults work together, each sharing responsibilities, sharing hardships and also doing life together. This idea has always appealed to me, but it was outside of what our current culture through movies, magazines, television and school modeled to me. While I loved the noisy village idea as a child, once I was married and had my children, I subscribed to the idea that we were preparing them to be as independent as possible. We wanted to give them all the tools to fly the nest and go and make their own way in the world. The corona virus shelter in has been a heart shifting time in many ways. One of the things Erik and I are realizing is that we REALLY love being around our adult children. Yes, there are the family meals, and the games, and the skill of the day, and the fun dance classes. But its deeper than that. There is something happening on a different level. Because we are all together, all the time, we are getting to know each other in multifaceted ways. This knowing happens all day long, but I notice it in particular, as we sit in silence together. Because they are adults, I can just sit with them, the way I would with a friend. We are living in deep time together and in that we are becoming more deeply connected. On Friday as we enter into the 2nd stage of re-opening our state, a few of the boys will be going back to work, and things will begin to resume some kind of normalcy. I find myself wanting to hold on to this deep connection I am feeling. There are elements of this time that have shifted how I see the future of our family. I think many of us feel it. I am grateful because it gives me a new storyline to dream into. One that may include our own very real noisy village. #butterflybtc