Coming Home, Part One

I've a somewhat grim task to take care of this week of spring vacation.  I have to find and pack up the bequests of a dear aunt.  So, yesterday I found myself heading North on an East Coast Highway towards the small town that is my family's home.  Snow pelted the car while child #2, who decided to accompany me at the last moment, bemoaned the fact that everyone else in North America seemed to be headed South. Upon waking this morning, the temperature of 4 degrees Fahrenheit encouraged us to return to the cocoon of our beds for a few more minutes until the house warmed up.  

Coming back home, no matter how long I have been gone, is a relaxing and re-centering experiencing - although it does take some time to adjust. Some of this comes from leaving the relative anonymity of my suburban home and acclimating again to the very small community in which both of my parents grew up. Our adjustment began in church this morning, in which we four were a large percentage of the people sitting in the pews.  With the sun streaming in the windows labeled with names of families who had donated them (our family included), I was incredibly awed at the sense of belonging within this small parish, myself included.