Summer at the lake was special in more ways than one this year. After serving in the US Marines and being deployed twice, my son Orion got to visit our special place after 8 years away. He had left as a boy and now suddenly was here as a full-grown man playing table tennis with his siblings, taking laps around the island with his mother, naps on our sofa with our puppy Bichon Nova, long hours at the firepit burning pine needles and fallen branches, and longer hours still playing midnight hour Scrabble. It was a needed respite, a calming, peaceful, restorative week for our family unit. No reception whatsoever turned our faces to one another and what happened then will be etched into my heart for a long time to come. We really saw each other and we were beautiful; we truly heard each other and our stories were grand; we closely held each other and felt each other’s dreams. Our cedar pan-abode was filled with flowers and sunshine, lavender waxed floors and linen fresh sheets. The scene had been set a week before the kids’ arrival for Maclean’s magazine. Yes mam. Surprise, surprise. I will post about how this story unfolded a bit later. For now, it is about my family and the replenished happiness we felt and were left with. All hail the loon’s wail. The lake has struck again.
