As the ocean rises, I see roses

The air was cool but clammy, the sun was struggling to burn off the early morning fog, succeeding quite nicely at its task, and we were waiting in line to board the ferry to Nantucket, bicycles in tow, waiting, waiting, waiting, for this new adventure to begin. I thought about our children, as I always do when we are on vacation in this just-beginning new phase of life, this post-raising children together phase, this back-to-just-the-two-of-us phase, this phase that can find me teary eyed when least expected, not sorrow promoting the tears, just the melancholy that often accompanies the POW! realization, over and over again until I really get it I guess, that yes, our son and daughter are GROWN....and our vacations no longer include them. It is a powerful realization whenever it nudges me, and it nudged me this clammy- but- clearing Cape Cod morning, and as it nudged me my eyes landed on an ocean rose bush. I don't know if this is what they are really called, but it's what I call them: they are petite roses of a distinctly pink hue, a color I only find by the ocean; and on this morning, during this waiting, as my eyes surveyed these roses, Spirit spoke to me, loud and clear, and reminded me of something important.

The roses I was looking at were four to a branch, and it seemed that every branch, every bunch, that I looked at held one sweet tightly wrapped rose bud, just beginning its journey, one that was in full bloom, a rose that had bloomed and was beginning to lose it's petals, and one that was in its final stages, yet still full of unique beauty and life energy...and I got the message: even though our children are grown, even though our vacations are now just the two of us again, the family we were is still within each of us, an energy that will never leave. Our memories may vary, each of us recalling different points in our time together AT different times, but the four of us still stem from the same branch...we always will...and always, always there will be the beauty, no matter what stage any of us has arrived at in life.....always there will be the beauty of who we were , who we are, and who we will continue to become.

It is true: a picture is worth a thousand words.....but I'll stop here.