When Our Inner Landscape Signals a Shift

It&#8217;s summer here in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Iconic jagged edge coastlines, cold aqua blue water, low tides with starfish, barnacles and sea anemones showing face. Fields are hot, cities are still bustling, everyone is looking for a cool place to land.<br/><br/>With days spent touching our toes into the Pacific Ocean I admire the sense of wonder that the magical town of Cannon Beach, OR has woven through me. I hear people say, &#8220;This is my happy place.&#8221; &#8220;I become full of ideas on this coastline.&#8221; &#8220;This place is enchanting.&#8221; And indeed it is.<br/><br/>People passing through for a day, a week, a month or even years. Some never leave. My grandma found this town and its charm in the 70&#8217;s reminding her of the villages and cottages that England creates. My mom followed her closely after. And then I arrived. For the most part, none of us have ever left. Allowing our roots to soak deeply into the edges of this place. <br/><br/>More people have arrived and become a part of our family, my uncle, my grandpa, my dad, my stepdad, my little sister, her husband, and my partner Gretchen. Some of these people are still living, some have passed on, but all of us are still loving.<br/><br/>I found myself as a child in this town not really knowing how to define &#8220;family&#8221;. Was it blood? The people who shared the same bloodline as you? That didn&#8217;t make sense because my childhood best friend was adopted and she was loved just as much as I was. Was it having a mom and a dad, and an extended set of grandparents. I had that but parts of my family was estranged. I was lucky enough to have an extremely unusual upbringing.<br/><br/>The question stayed with me. What is family? When I was 12 my mom married my step-dad and I got a new set of grandparents with oodles of uncles, aunties and cousins on the way. Because of this marriage, we were now family. But I didn&#8217;t understand. I was technically the &#8220;first&#8221; grandchild, but in my mind at 12 the d