Cape Cod Blog: Outwater Family reunion under way!

Greetings from the Cape!

I’m lying in bed right now in a hundred year old house, overlooking Horseshoe Bay and the larger Pleasant Bay on the shores of Cape Cod, Ma. The sun is just barely creeping into my room, and I am listening to the rain pouring down outside my window, and the thunder grumbling in the distance. Tide is on the way out. It’s been up all night, and I could hear it rolling in and out, like listening to your lover breathing in bed beside you. Every once in a while, a gentle breeze will reach her hand through the open window to toy with my hair and spread it across the pillows. Kody is curled up beside me, snoozing, happy as a clam.

WE got here last night just in time to enjoy the first of our family dinners at this reunion… Let me explain an Outwater reunion for those of you not familiar with my humungous family…

My grandparents on my dad’s side had six kids, who all married, went off and had kids of their own, who are just now beginning to marry. We live all over the place, and our reunions happen once every two years, always in the same place at the same time. It’s been that way as long as I can remember.

So, there’s about thirty Outwater descendants who fly in, and pack into one giant house for a week every other summer.:-d It’s quite the event.

WE always stay in the same house. It’s a big, rambling Cape Cod style house built in 1906 by a doctor and his wife. It sits on a peninsula, surrounded by a backwater bay on three sides, bordered by a marsh on the fourth side. The house has ten bedrooms, some big, and others just large enough for a bed, dresser and chair.

It’s one of those houses where one footstep echoes through the whole house, thumping on the hardwood floors. We have all generations covered at these reunions, from ages five, to eighty-six, and everyting in between. Some of us grandkids are out of college, and some are just starting kindergarten. So, some of us are up at 6 AM, and some sleep in until noon (which makes life very confusing and funny.) Stuff thirty Outwaters, a Guide dog, all kinds of interests and personalities and a whole lot of love into one house, and the resulting cacophony never ceases! I love it.

A beautiful porch wraps around three sides of the house. We spend most of the day outside, on the rocky beach watching birds and fish, or relaxing on the porch chatting and reading.

The dining room has a table big enough to seat all of us. The uproar at our nightly dinner has to be heard to be believed, but grace at our table, with all of us holding hands, passing a kiss, and toasting each other is truly magical.

Every room has windows thrown wide to the sea breeze, and the smell of salt and old weathered wood is thick in the air.

I don’t know which I love more. Being in this house, a place I love so dearly, or being around all my family at one time. Or perhaps it’s the enchantment of the combination that makes this my favorite place in the world.

There’s an old out of tune baby grand piano in the living room. I can sit there for hours, and even through the out of tune keys, I can pick out melodies that bring out the best side of my songwriting. There’s something about this place that sends my art catapaulting to a whole new level every time I come here. Is it any wonder that “art” can be found in heart??? :-d The two are inextricably linked, I’ve learned. Where my heart feels cared for and full, my art will flourish.

Now it’s late afternoon, and I’m sitting in the dining room with the sun on my back, and the sound of an awsprey hunting cry drifting through the open window. We went for a beautiful sail, and I just spent a day lounging and relaxing, reading, catching up with family, enjoying the beautiful weather. Tomorrow, I’ll probably swim the narrows with my uncle, or go for a long walk through the woods with Kody.

Tonight, I’m looking forward to a huge lobster feast. My sister and cousins are in the kitchen making a hot pink lobster to go on my grandmother’s birthday cake. Kids are down at the beach digging clams, taking turns learning to sail with my uncle, or seeing how much sand they can track into the house. Dad’s grilling corn… Grandma is herding grandkids, and yet more grandkids are running upstairs, chasing each other. no matter where you go, there’s something fun to be found, and someone fun to do it with.

Love from Heaven on earth,

-Sassy