"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." -Frank Lloyd Wright.
Summers at the beach have become our reset ritual. A place for my family to escape the brutal Texas sun and get closer to nature.
Close to water, my soul settles - as does my daughter's. Letting the sand and waves wash over us, finding its way into all the parts of our beings that need cleansing, a scrubbing, a pause.
By the sea, sleep and rest come easier. Peace seems to be within my grasp, allowing my minds tight grip on life ease just enough for me to find rest and joy and relaxation.
Creating, in all its forms, flows more abundantly. Writing, painting, photographing everything. Often. Inspired by the natural beauty around me - the abundantly lush garden flowers and succulents, the changing tide, nightly sunsets - new ideas and projects and colors and storylines whisper to be explored.
Connection comes in all its magical forms. With the simpler backdrop of breaking tides, and small(er) town life, I find I'm better able to hear my thoughts. To find my center. To trust it to bring me out into the day to make new friends, chase adventures, and to truly see and embrace my daughter in all her pre-teen wonder.
A few lessons this season is teaching me:
*Keep it simple. This applies to schedules, to food, to wardrobe, to ALL THE THINGS. With less choice, I'm finding more.
*Say yes MORE. Especially to my lovely daughter. Yes to gelato. To surfing. To two trips to the beach. To the art shop, the new friendship, the laughter.
*Stay steady in the tide. This period of life - mothering, arting, building a business, a life, new relationships - is really teaching me to trust the waves. To know that that even in the changing tide, there will always be beauty and adventure and love.
Here's to more summer, more waves, more lessons in simplicity and presence.
