I am home

Did you miss me?

I’m back from freezing my tail end off in Ft. Worth for a week. Sheesh, how do you northern people do it? I mean, the temps were in the 20′s-30′s for most of the trip, and my kids were simply going ape from being cooped up inside. It was a Runescape marathon for them, as there were 3 computers available to them.

They did go outside once, squinting into the blinding light of the sun and gave my sister a coronary when they went down the street on their skate boards. The hill my mom lives on is very steep, and is the same hill that I broke my arm sledding on, hence the coronary. My brother on the other hand, ran out and joined them and I was sure he would break a hip or a tailbone.

It was such a fantastic visit, in spite of the cold. We spent some quality time with my mom, sister and her boyfriend, and the icing on the cake was that my brother joined in. I can’t go into the details as to why (spouse), but he refuses to isolate himself and his children from his family anymore, and for this I am so grateful. We have really missed out on some qualitiy sibling and cousin time (he has 2 young children), and plan on making up for it in the months and years to come.

The kids have been sick most of the holidays, and on the last day of our time with my mom, I called my friend P and asked if her lovely husband could see my daughter. I was suspicious that she had something serious, as the rash on her body was getting worse, she was cranky, and was sleeping until past 10am. No fever, no other complants. Dr. Husband Of P, the pediatrician, saw Mia, did a throat swab and “TaDa” she had strep throat. Strep throat=an abrupt halt to the rest of the vacation plans (which included a weekend in the hill country), so we loaded up on antibiotics and headed back to the coast yesterday. One…long….drive. Ugh, I most certainly didn’t calculate the distance to my moms into the decision to move. I miss her.

As we neared the bridge that would take us back to the beach where we live, I heard Cory say “Mia, look! The bridge! We are almost HOME” and she squealed “YEAAAAHH” and the rest of the boys chimed in with cheering. I think that is the first time I have heard them call our new town home.

Seeing the bridge gave me the same feelings of “home”. The view of people lined up fishing on the bridge, the first glimpse of water, the sweet smell of the ocean. It makes me aware of how a fish must feel when it is lifted from it’s womb of water, and exposed to air. Just a suffocating, lost feeling……and the relief it must feel when it is tossed back and enveloped
into that salty loveliness.

Our bodies are somewhere around 70% saline water. We have strong ties with the sea. Many people don’t feel this tie. They have no connection with the sea whatsoever. In fact, many people I know loath the beach and everything about it. This is about as foreign to me as foreign can be. The pull I feel to the water is so strong is is primal. I have felt it all of my life. The only way I can describe it is that it is like an overwhelming thirst after days and days in the desert with no water.

Today I feel like that fish. Quenched, relieved and at home, back in the salty loveliness of the coast.

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