Today is a big day; my mom is going out to brunch. It’s been almost a month since my step-dad died and she hasn’t felt ready to do anything social with her friends.. until now.

I’m sure she will have last minute quivers, she had them last week-end when we invited her out to eat and she backed out after initially saying yes. She didn’t use the bra excuse, but it was close.

Let’s face it, staying home is safe, comfortable, predictable and undemanding ..but I think mom is also finding that home can pretty quickly become a beautifully appointed, suffocating place if you don’t get out of it enough. Home can be a hiding place, a refuge from tough realities.. but that soft, cozy blanket can eventually wrap us up so tightly that it cuts us off from the life circulating on the other side of our front doors.

Part of what makes home special is coming back to it..from work, from vacation, from brunch.

I told mom last week not to wait too long to re-engage with her friends, but I also reassured her that she would know when the time was right.

I hope that right time is today.