I sat there, stretched out with my feet on the seat; leaning back; feeling the sun on my face and the warm breeze gently caressing my cheeks. I was happy. I was downright blissful!

The kids were all piled on the tube behind the boat. My brother-in-law was driving & I was comfortable with that. The kind of comfort you have around an old friend who becomes family.

And so, I did not have a care in the world. The day was beautiful. The kids were happy & I was more content than I remember being for a long while.

Back on the beach, being there with my sisters was like being home. Except now, as moms of preteens, we are more. We find that we have more leisure now, our kids need us very little, especially when they are together. We three just pick up where we left off. Conversation continues. We remember days in this very same water where our children splash where we once did just a few short years ago.

They are the comfort food of my soul. I may question myself, judge who I am. But here, with them, I am that girl again. The one who wanted to create. The one who can dream and laugh and be there in the moment.

Our children are growing up so fast, so similar yet so different. Like the three of us. I wandered the beach, sand between my toes, exploring, watching, capturing smiles, dripping mops of tousled hair, moments of fleeting childhood games with cousins. Finding pleasure in another creative outlet with a camera; thankful for zoom lens allowing me a window to a world that only they know, but I remember.

I think of the summer sun & how much I love it. I think this is because of the memories and moments that it allows. The best ones are there, in the sun.

But, something else that I am learning is that one does not have to go far to find the sun. I only have to look within my heart and see that sun whenever I need to. It is never far away. The clouds have to part sometime. Before long, the comfort of the warm sun will be streaming through and I will turn my face toward it and smile like one who knows a secret.