Seven.

It has been a busy summer for Matt and I, as they so often are. Living in a city like Vancouver where more than half the year it is raining means that us residents emerge from our hermitages in the spring, mole-like and blinking in the sun. When we finally believe that summer is truly here we move into action - dusting off tents and BBQs, planning picnics at the beach and trips to Vancouver Island or the Sunshine Coast and hosting friends and family that have learned that the only time to visit this city is the summertime. Combine that with a fearful influx of work for both Matt and I and it has been positively hectic around here.

So we have been busy. I didn't realize how busy until I went to my nephew's birthday party the other evening. As soon as we arrived and I stepped into my sister's home I felt as if I were taking my first deep breath in a while. She and her family live in Coquitlam in a two story, family-style home. My sister complains that she wants a new house, something modern and designed by her and I can never quite explain to her how cozy and wonderful her home feels to me. Talking it over with my mom the next day we agreed it was because the moment you cross the threshold you understand that you are in a happy home. It's like you pass through the doorway into another dimension and you just feel it in your gut. It's a family home, yes, the driveway has skateboards and scooters and bikes strayed across it, but it also reflects my sister and her husband. He is a photographer and his wonderful images are hung all over the house. The interior is prettily painted and decorated and the garden is gorgeous.

We ate on the side deck, under a criss-crossing of little white lights. And as I stepped out of the kitchen onto the deck, I took in with a glance my family talking and laughing together, nieces and nephews running around and between adults and my step-father and brother-in-law at the BBQ. My mother, the matriarch, was dressed beautifully, as usual, in a pink knit sleeveless top and colourful full skirt, hair bobbed and styled tastefully, feet crossed at the ankles and her head inclined slightly toward my brother-in-law's sister, smiling and nodding as she listened. And when I looked at her I saw, as I always do when she is sitting quietly talking with someone, how she seems to draw the very light to her.

At this moment, all was as it should be and I took my first deep, long breath in a while, smiled, and then jumped into the fray.