No Place Like Home

I'm sorry I haven't written in awhile. I have had a lot of things that I have wanted to write about, but I couldn't choose which one I wanted to talk about first. And then last night, Otto and I were talking about the summer and the topic of this post hit me like a freight train.
A couple of weeks ago when I was calling my family's house my brother got on the phone and asked me "Megan, what do you like most about the cabin?" Without hesitating I answered that my favorite part about the cabin is spending time with my family. Apparently that was what Jason was wanting to hear and he was thrilled that I said it. However, I don't think that he quite understood what I was trying to say.
The cabin, to me, is my home. When I go there my spirit feels connected to my past and to my future all at the same time. As I sit on the deck and look at the beach that my mom, Grandpa and Uncle Brant cleared away when my mom was a teenager I giggle as I recollect the stories of how she was punished for going out with her friends by being ordered to haul wood up the mountain all day long. I look at the rocks with their holes eroded into them and recall endless summers playing on the beach and pretending those rocks were my kitchen and spending hours "cooking" in my kitchen. Memories of my sisters pretending to be the Little Mermaid on those rocks also come flooding back to me as I show my little girls how they used to pose on the rocks and sing the songs from that Disney movie.
Whenever we pull up to the marina and load the boat to go across the lake to get to our cabin memories of going across the lake in storms always make me nervous that the weather will be stormy and I will have to do it again. Other memories of being allowed to sit on the top of the front of the old Sea Ray boat to help weigh it down make me smile as I remember feeling so excited to be in my favorite place in the whole world.
I feel connected to my past and linked to my future when I go to the cabin. I had my first kiss at the cabin. I have grown up with a lot of the people who still visit their cabins every summer. I have had the most spiritual church meetings held at various cabins along the lake. My favorite Sundays have been where the church meetings are an hour long, and the visiting that takes place afterwards is just as long. There are Steak dinners followed by peaches and cream that have long been a tradition. There are tube wars, water skiing and wakeboarding lessons. The summer just wouldn't be the same if I didn't spend some of it trying to bribe my own children to jump off of the cliffs or try wakeboarding or tubing.
So, when I say that I love to spend time with my family at the cabin, it is more than that. I love to spend time with my roots. I love to go to the place of my childhood and create memories with my own children. I love to sit on the dock at nighttime with my sisters and ponder the mysteries of the Universe. I love to watch my mother be happier and more relaxed than she is in any other place. I love to go home to the cabin. It is a place of great memories for me, and it holds a special place in my heart. My only hope is that if my mother ever decides that she wants to sell it, that I have enough money to buy it from her. Because if I were to ever lose the place that I feel more at home than any other place, I would be sad. I would miss it more than anyone would know. It is my home. As Dorothy put it "There's no place like home."