HOME, SWEET HOME — A stellar family

Skyblue left the meeting eager to walk with her friends and see the places where she had grown up.

The days that followed were full of reunions.

Her family was larger than the word had come to mean to her in the dragon village. On the Blue Planet, adults shared the raising of children. Every child knew where they came from, but could find care, teaching, and affection among many people in the community.

Skyblue went to see those who had been part of her childhood. With each embrace, a different memory returned: a question someone had helped her think through, a game, a hand offered when she had not yet learned how to do something. She understood better now what their presence had meant.

She also remembered how couples prepared when they wished to have a child. The community supported that decision, tending to body, emotions, mind, and spirit. The arrival of a new life involved everyone.