A Beautiful Place to Call Home

After a very long week, I had to travel into the city to run an errand. I enjoy visiting the city but my drive in today was tiresome and I was weary. So it was nice to finally arrive home this afternoon and to have the house to myself for a couple of hours. Stretching out on my bed, I had the window open and that's when I heard it again. Our brook.

The day after my brother Kevin's wedding, just a few weeks after I began my first year of teaching, my parents, my husband, and I took a trip to this town after reading of some new homes being built. I thought the community was a little too far away from where my husband and I had teaching jobs, but it turned out not to be. We toured a model home and were surprised to learn that we just might be able to afford to build a modest home there, now that we were a two income family. The next day my Dad took it upon himself to walk every single lot in the development that was still available. Being nearly six months pregnant with my first child, I did not join him, but by the time he arrived back to my apartment at the end of the day, he had the best lot decided upon. We crunched numbers and my husband and I became the ninth homeowners to build in that development which in the past 19 years has greatly expanded. Still, the neighborhood remains peaceful.

The brook in front of our home has long been a favorite spot. It has been where my children threw in beanie babies to follow the current and where little wooden boats, crafted and painted with their Dad's help, took their maiden voyages. Over the years we have taken numerous family pictures near the brook. The kids enjoyed testing the hardiness of the ice that would form each winter, and come spring I would dry the dog's paws after she'd gone for a drink there. But most of all I have loved how it lulls me to sleep each season when it is running. Its soothing sound never fails to relax me.

It was exciting back then to secure this spot. It is comforting now to be here still. As I enjoy the sound of the running brook outside my bedroom window, I'm grateful for this little area of paradise I have. I am so very thankful that my Dad helped us decide that this town, this development, this very lot of land, would make a beautiful place to call home. Thanks Dad.