The insatiable desire to find new places, explore different cultures, and be with new people.
I like to go all in when I travel, eat the local fare, visit a small white church off Main Street, find a hidden book shop and spend an hour rummaging through it's treasures while milking my coffee.
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| The church we went to on our honeymoon |
Everybody's got their thing, some like to stay in the same hotel everywhere they go, eat the same chain restaurants they do at home, and just escape. Some people climb mountains, some want to be in the middle of the dessert. Some hide out in the middle of the woods.
The ocean has always called to me.
My favorite vacations all take place at an ocean. Our little family on the Atlantic. Our honeymoon in the south pacific. Our anniversary trip to Italy. (technically that was the Mediterranean sea but thats close enough) It's calmness, it's flow, it's power. The sound, the smell, the hypnotic way it gets me. The ocean and I, we're tight.
I love to walk in just so it's foamy white peaks kiss the bottom of my knee caps, letting the tide pull the sand slowly over my feet. Pushing me slowly out towards shore then the undertow pulling me slightly in. I cold stand there for hours. In awe of nature and the God who created it. And I have.
But you know what inevitably happens.
I get lulled in by the push and pull. The sound, the smell the hypnotic way it gets me and eventually I realize I've been standing there for hours and the tide is coming in and those foamy white peaks are no longer kissing my knee caps but my abdomen is submerged and my shoulder just got splashed by the spray. Then out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of a full blown wave, but it's already to late and I'm flat out. I get worked by the undertow and I'm under for a minute. Down for the count. I come up and make my way to shore but it takes a minute to catch my breath, regain my strength and wrap my head around what just happened. I sit there and stare at the ocean. Then eventually get up take a deep breath, dust myself off and get on with it.
And you know what thats exactly what happens in life too.
You get lost in the day to day. The mundane. The ins and outs. The reading of the same book every afternoon, the wiping of the bootys and divvying out of snacks. The finding of the favorite blanket and the fixing of the toy that ALWAYS breaks. The unloading of the dishwasher and folding laundry, cooking dinner, and scrubbing floors. You forget to take a step back, to watch yourself. You get in over your head and then when you're already struggling to get back to safety you get knocked out and you just gotta take a minute.
So I took a minute.
I took a deep breath.
And I needed it.
But ya know what?
Minutes over. Life. Goes. On.
So here's to dusting myself off, taking a deep breath and finding my sea legs again!
