At The Beach with the Brood

We had a wonderful vacation again this year. We went to Point Judith in RI and stayed in a cabin with views of the ocean on three sides. It sounds really expensive, but it is more economical than renting two hotel rooms for the week. The cabin has a full kitchen and living room and a nice deck and yard. My husband and his family used to go there on vacation when he was a child. He has very fond memories there and we always take a walk and look at the cabin where he stayed as a young boy.

I am thrilled that all of the children love to go there and get so excited...including my college aged daughter. It was a blessing to spend the week before she went off to college together as a family without the distractions of most of the electronic gadgets that we have at home.

We walked to the Point Judith Lighthouse and spent many hours on the beach both during the day and at night. We swam and watched sunsets, we played with the hermit crabs and found starfish, we climbed over rocks and felt the salt-water spray on our faces, we took a ride on the Block Island Ferry and visited the animal farm, we listened to the sea gulls and heard the fog horn, we ate the delicious seafood and enjoyed ice cream, we sat on our deck and watched the fireworks, etc. I feel so close to God there. Like I could reach out and touch Him.

God knows that I need to be with my family during that week. It is, as I've mentioned before the week of Caleb's anniversary of his death. It is bittersweet to go to the beach without one of the members of our family. I notice his absence everywhere and often have a lump in my throat choking back the emotions.

On one of the trips, after hiking over many rocks and arriving at the lighthouse, my children noticed a baby bunny jumping and playing in the nicely groomed lawn at the base of the lighthouse. They played with it briefly. As we were walking away my children also noticed another baby bunny that was recently killed, by what my husband said, must have been the landscaper's big mower.

The sight of that dead bunny was so difficult for me because it reminded me of Caleb's death. Not because he died in a similar way, but because God's ways are higher than my ways and I will never really understand why Caleb was taken, as I find it difficult to understand why God would allow that bunny to die. I do understand that animals are different than humans, of course, but it really affected me.

I was thinking the other day about how I am so emotional since Caleb's death still (three years later). The smallest thing will bring tears to my eyes. I have tried at times to start wearing mascara again, but always give up because I get tears so often it is not worth wearing. Other women that I am friends with have told me that they find that they are more emotional as they get older. I am beginning to think that it is not necessarily that we are getting older specifically, but maybe that as we get older we are touched by more trials and it makes us more compassionate and understanding so that things touch us more deeply.

On a lighter note, I read the entire book "The Help" while on vacation. I really enjoyed the book and I want to go and see the movie with one of my girlfriends. Have any of you read it or seen the movie...or both?

I also read the book Love Amid the Ashes. It is a fictional story of Job from the Bible. The author weaves the story from the Bible and fills in the details with her imagination as well as educated guesses as to what may have gone on. It really brought certain things to life for me from the story of Job in the Bible.

Do any of you have books that you have read that you could recommend to me? I would love to hear any suggestions that you have.

Below are a "few" of the pictures that I took throughout the week.

Goodnight my friends.
With Hope,
Cheryl