Goodbye summer...

With school on the horizon, we thought a day trip to the eastern shore would be a great way to wrap things up.

The kids were super excited leading up to Saturday — not so much the (early) morning of.

We had no choice but to take my truck (since the battery died in the other the night prior)…so our happy campers were forced to sit alongside each other for the 3 hour drive. You know how that goes. Buddies quickly become enemies and the cabin air gets toxic.

A packed, sunny, blazing hot Ocean City greeted us….along with a fleet of Jeep Wranglers. Little did we know it was Jeep week.

Sportland Arcade provided relief from the elements.

An ice cream from Dumsers and a bumper car ride later….we were off to Assateague Island.

The horses were out in full display and the water and the beach were perfect. If it wasn’t for an approaching storm, I think we could have spent a few hours there soaking it in.

We capped things off at the Assateague Crab House.

The boys indulged me in front of the humongous flag.

‘Merica…

Gratitude...

‘People talk about “living in gratitude,” but I wonder how many of us are able to truly live our day-to-day lives being thankful for what we have. Like the fact that we are alive and on this magnificent planet, that in this vast universe, we are here, breathing in and out on a tiny speck of wonder, soaring through the cosmos.

I marvel simply looking at my hand. I marvel at tears rolling down my face, at the intricate ability to feel pain and triumph. I marvel at the concept of love, its infinite power, its endless good.

WOW. (Mom pointed out the other day that WOW was MOM upside down.)

Living in gratitude is about HOW we see things. Your intentions hold incredible power. Be mindful of them. Point them in a good direction. Be earnest. Be the kind of person you want to attract into your own life. Humility takes incredible strength.

And although this life is filled with enormous grief and sadness and challenges and depression and loss and death, it is also filled with promise. We easily lose sight of that when things go sideways, and they often do. Life is going to be hard a lot of the time and that’s okay. You can do it.

Living in gratitude involves a lot more than saying you’re grateful. It is a way of existing. In poker you often hear the phrase “all in”. Living in a real state of gratitude means just that: every second has to be all in. Being grateful for pain lessens the hurt. Being grateful for loss may not make any sense, but it’s a way of allowing your heart and mind to let things go instead of dragging them with you.

It’s interesting to me how much I gain from letting things go., how much I learn that is directly linked to how often I fail. Every single time you don’t get it right is like a building block to becoming a better version of yourself.

Flying is falling.

We spend so much time worrying about dying, and that causes us to worry about living. So let the universe have its way with you.

You are a piece of it all. Infinite. Boundless. Indivisible.’

~ Jann Arden, Feeding My Mother

Made it...

There's something about seeing our kids succeed that fills every nook and cranny inside me.