• What does returning home mean to you?

For some people who have lived a transient lifestyle such as military families or those who have moved from place to place seeking job opportunities coming home means returning to some where deep within the soul rather than to a house or physical property or to a neighborhood.

This summer my twin and I returned to our three childhood homes. What a fulfilling journey it was with a whole host of memories that came flooding back.

My Dad and his company, which is now in it’s 5th generation, built all three childhood homes. I think the first and second of our family homes were built nearly single – handedly.

The home my twin sister and I came to after our birth.

Then we moved from Cape Cod style to farmhouse colonial.

Then to 1970’s contemporary from age 12 until off to college.

This was our playground. A walk into the woods from our property lead us to this place.

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If you are planning to write a memoir, a return to the roots of your early life can stir up all kinds of things to write about.

This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard. Award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

If you have something good in your life, don’t let it go. ~ Unknown

The best kind of meet-ups are impromptu – completely unexpected. The ones that happen on the spur of the moment.

For old times’ sake, today I thought I’d share a then and now picture of my twin and me and our sidekick. Recently, we had a very brief bit of time together.  Here we are in 1980, the day I married and here we are thirty-five years later!

I am posting this picture today because my husband and I are celebrating the day we got married.When you have a twin sister and a loyal friend from first grade who  has stuck with you through thick and thin, they all become part of the package when you marry.

1980: L to R – Chris, Sue and Jan

2015: L to R – Sue, Chris, Jan

I’ve had many gifts throughout my lifetime. What a fortunate gal I am!!

Happy Anniversary Day, Terry. You’ve enriched my life enormously!

This blog is brought to you by the author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Lessons of Heart & Soul.

Since Labor Day is just around the corner, today on All Things Fulfilling, we are going post our annual tribute to summer through words and pictures.

Come along! I hope you’ve experienced some of the same fulfilling feelings of summer that I’ve had during the high season of all things light and bright.

Pure water is the world’s first and foremost medicine. ~Slovakian Proverb

Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos. ~Don Kardong

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. ~ Gerard de Nerval

Have wholesome but not costly food and be…dainty in ordering it. ~ William Penn

Nature’s curfew: lightning bugs.~ Sue Batton Leonard

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~ Khalil Gibran

Life is better on the porch. Unknown

Farm fresh is the best ~ Unknown

 Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning. ~Samuel Butler

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious barbecue.

It is the source of all true art and science. – Albert Einstein

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the more we should see through it.

~ Niccolo Machiavelli

My bounty is a boundless as the sea. ~ William Shakespeare

Water is the driver of Nature. – Leonardo da Vinci

Life needs more sweet tea ~ Unknown

Childhood is a short season. ~Helen Hayes

Check in on us tomorrow. Lyrics from a song from several decades ago will give us one last chance to relive summer for a few minutes. Then we will move ahead into the bounty of the harvest season on All Things Fulfilling. There is much I like about fall, so I won’t wax melancholy until thats over!

This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of the award-winning memoir Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.