Quiet and Real Life

We returned home from the beach a couple of weeks ago and I must admit that it put me into somewhat of a bad mood.  A week of happiness and ease made the reality of life hit hard upon returning home.  My life is wonderful, there are so many good things happening but it's filled with a lot of work and responsibility.  When we crossed the line into Virginia, I felt my blood pressure rise a notch. 

There's something about the beach that just makes me completely relax.  Perhaps it's watching the beautiful view or spending happy time all together.  I always like to go to the beach alone and just watch the waves and listen to my own voice (which sometimes gets lost in all the responsibilities).  It's a time that I can step back from the chaos in my life and see more clearly what needs to happen. 

This trip Amy awoke at 6 and instead of trying to wrestle her back to sleep, we went to the beach and sat and watched.  I wanted to keep that feeling with me, one of contentment and calmness. 

So, it was back to real life and it was hard.  I decided that perhaps being out in nature together might bring back some of that feeling for me.  

I love sitting around a camp fire.  Life is just better there watching the flames, talking, eating good food.  It's more of a challenge here to find fire pits so we haven't, in all the years we've lived here, had a fire.  We went out to Prince William Forest and got ourselves a camp site.  We invited our friends, the Baird's, to join us and we had the more relaxing, lovely afternoon.  The kids frolicked (and I truly mean that word) in the forest and I thought of many afternoons past at my grandparent's cabin in Ophir.  How I miss those days.  Oh, and the delicious dutch oven chicken. 

 

 

We liked it so much that we went back the next Saturday to "hike."  I can't really call it a hike because we weren't going up a mountain, it was really just a walk through trees.  It's the Utah girl in me, I guess.  

We felt relaxed and happy and I thought that maybe these feelings exist outside the beach.  I'm going to keep trying to see.