It is the morning of the second day back in my little cottage by the lake in Michigan. I have slept deeply, with contentment, as if the very walls and sugurpine floorboards welcomed me back.

Though my name is still on the deed, when I left it to my then 22 year old son 5 years ago and moved to Maryland with my youngest son I knew I had passed the baton of ownership on. I walked my gardens and caressed my lilac tree and rested my cheek against the hundred year old maple in the backyard. Deep inside I knew it was time to journey on.

And here I am, home but not home, because my son and his wife and her two children and their baby they made together have loved this little house into a sanctuary of their own design.

They honor me as a respected Mother, and greeted me with homemade cookies and sweet smelling sheets and the arms of my grandchildren.

It has just occurred to me that there is a reason that we all get along so well~my son is a Pisces, my daughter in law a Scorpio, my grandaughter a Scorpio, my two grandsons Cancers, and me? I'm a Cancerian too.

There is a synchronicity and flow to our relationships that is as soothing as a calm still lake.

Tomorrow I will head home to Maryland and only the crashing of the sea with its ebb and flow and endless horizon will catch my tears.

I don't want to leave this family of my heart.