It's All In The Cards

Sometimes I just stop and think about this deck of cards I have been given called life, love and family. I think about all the queens and kings that surround me, the jokers and the wild deuces. Stopping and looking at it I realize how all those cards don't quite fit in the box nicely any more. They overflow out of the box. Some of the cards are earmarked or bent a little. Some are in pristine new condition, and others are worn smooth, broken in and easy to shuffle and deal. Some of the cards are right there in between. Some have found their pair, others are working on a full house.



And then I look down at the stack of chips on the table before me. I think about how little I started out with. There were times when there wasn't even a stack. There was only a single chip sitting on the table in front of me (and my mom). The chip sat there like a loose tooth holding onto its roots just waiting for the promise of something bigger to take its place. The anticipation and the betting, the poker faces and the holding out just long enough.. out lasting the others around us and building back the stacks slowly and steadily. All that time, holding the heart cards close at hand, because that was really what would win us the jackpot.



Over the past month we have had a party every weekend (every.single.weekend). The house has been cleaned and re-cleaned. Food has been prepared and devoured, wine has been poured and spilled. Laughter has echoed through the walls of our home filing it with memories and love.
I know that my chips are stacked high now. I know that holding out for that straight flush in hearts was all I really needed to do.
It really is all in the cards that you are dealt.
And damn, I got a good hand.