My daughter moved to New York about 18 months ago. I miss her awfully. I think of her whenever I drink from this, my favorite coffee mug, a present from her before she graduated from college. She has excellent taste in mugs and candles. Always has.

Her childhood passed us both by like a breezy summer’s day at the beach, a flurry of memory of sun and the tough bits we have let go for the most part. My beautiful child grown and gone. Time never stands still.

I take another sip. In so many ways, I remain that scared, young single mother on the beach, taking my baby to a place I had been happy in my childhood.

A mistake I thought I had made became a miracle of love and growth. Now she is out there, a woman grown, wings fully formed. God bless that broken road that lead me to a wondrous destination.