Our recent trip was a wonderful break from the normal, and it was really hard to come home again. One of these years, we will just stay down there! In the meantime, here I am in my little corner of paradise - I love this home we're made here. It's perfect for us... I only wish we could have been here when the kids were growing up. We will be able to give the grandkids what we were never able to give our children: stability. We dragged our kids across the country and back, and though it gave them a good exposure to lifestyles in other places and taught them flexibility, I always believed they would have been better served if we had lived in the same house during their growing-up years. Maybe it's just my own history I am projecting on them, but I think a solid home location is critical for a child.
I listen when people we meet ask my kids where they are from, and they can't really answer - we lived in Washington state when they were grade-schoolers, Georgia for a couple years, Florida for a couple more, then back to Washington. And the oldest was born in Florida, though we moved back to WA when he was a toddler. Still, I sense in them a feeling of disconnectedness - a drift factor, if you will. They are citizens of the world - with no real roots.
But now, we are going to stay right here until we retire, then we are moving all the way next door! It's comforting to know where "home" is for us now and into the future. It gives me a sense of security and peace and settledness (there I go making up another word :), and I hope it will give our kids, and especially the grandkids, the same feeling. when they are "going to Grandma's house," it will always be in the same place, with the same yard, the same creek, the same trees, etc, etc, etc. No matter where their parents take them, this place can be their solid ground.
Still, Cancun is nice to visit!
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