I’m coming home, I’m coming home, tell the world I’m coming home. – J. Cole
Actually, they’re already home. As are thousands of other children and over the next few weeks thousands more will join them, the annual return home from summer camp.
Our girls are back under roof after three weeks of experiencing what my one daughter described as the, “best time of her life”, at a terrific place called Emma Kaufmann Camp in West Virginia. From the smiles we see, the stories we hear and the conversations with our two girls, it’s a place they truly love and an experience they will remember for the rest of their lives. It’s all I want for them, to feel the joy of life.
I’m glad they had fun, but I’m even happier when they are back home. Though my wife and I had plenty of free time for a bunch of different activities: dinners, travel with friends, baseball games, boating, marathon sessions of watching Breaking Bad, sleeping in, more private time, (and lower weekly grocery bills), there is nothing quite like the girls return home. Because for all the freedom, the return to family life is what it’s all about. You can’t put a price on the experience of camp for our daughters, (what am I saying, actually you can!!), but hearing their voices, having them present and continuing to watch them learn and grow is at the heart of our existence. Home is where the heart is.
At some point, these exits and entrances will cease to exist, at least in their current form…a few weeks away and then the anticipation of their return home. At some point in a future which I try to believe is far away, but I know will be here in the blink of an eye, there will be things like work and college and then no anticipation of an extended return back home. The girls will have independent lives of their own to live, families to care for and responsibilities far beyond what they now experience.
So for now we savor all the happy times with our daughters. We’re there for the bumps and bruises, both physical and emotional, which come with growing up and we never, ever tire of the joy we feel when they are simply…coming home.
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Mark
Mark Brodinsky, Author, Huffington Post Blogger, Financial Services
#1 Amazon Best-Seller: It Takes 2. Surviving Breast Cancer: A Spouse’s Story
(http://www.spouses-story.com/)
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Connect with Mark: markbrodinsky@gmail.com
I loved reading your story…thank you for reminding me of that time with my daughters. They are grown now with families and responsibilities but always remain my little girls. Warmly Stephanie
Thank you Stephanie. Thanks for sharing.