My Happy Place

  I prayed and prayed about what to write today. A lot of the things that came to mind were, well, not super positive and I feel like I've been writing a lot of heavy stuff lately. I'm at the beach this week and I looked out the window and said, "Lord, I want to write something that matches how I feel when I look out the window here." So he held up the mirror and pointed out the obvious, I should write about the beach! 

 When we were a young family, just starting out, we were blessed with the opportunity to spend time at our friend's beach house. How much did they charge? Nothing. It was free. Which was great because that was our budget! It was our first vacation as a family, our baby wasn't even one-year-old yet. It was followed by a beach trip nearly every year for twelve years, and then multiple times a year once we had our own beach house. Not all of them were at our friend's beach house, just a couple of them. My husband's family lives just inland of Newport, Oregon, so we often traveled down to the Oregon coast for vacation. But six hours in a car with four young children is no joke, so Ocean Shores, Washington became our go-to. With good traffic, it's only about two hours door-to-door. That's much more doable! 

 Why the beach? It's hard to put into words. There's just a feeling that my whole body gets when we get closer to the ocean. It's an anticipation, a joy. I don't mind the sand between my toes, in fact I love it. I prefer to walk barefoot on the beach, even in the winter. And remember, in the Pacific Northwest the beach isn't some sunny, 85 degree place full of umbrellas and bikini-clad women. Nope, most women are wearing sweaters and jackets here in July 😂. That's part of why I love the beach, I'm not a fan of hot weather. When it gets over 85 inland, where we live, my soul longs to head to the ocean where it will be at least 10, if not 20 degrees cooler - guaranteed! This week it's in the upper 50s and I still feel the need to have the doors and windows open. I love the saltiness in the air. The sound of the waves crashing, even though we're multiple blocks away from the actual beach. I love the green! 

 Everything is green here. Ok, not all the green is good. My husband is going outside today to clean up the green gook in order to get ready to repaint the deck. But most of the green is awesome! The center of the Ocean Shores peninsula hosts a temperate rain forest dubbed Weatherwax. Walking here changes you. It cleanses your soul. Some call it forest bathing (though most keep their clothes on while doing it!). Perhaps it's the oxygen saturation in the air because of all the trees. Perhaps the air is cleaner because the wind off the ocean blows away all the impurities. Perhaps it is a redirection, a lack of worry about the day-to-day of this world. In any case, I can breathe. Even on the deck of our house though, I can stand for a few minutes with my coffee and just take it all in. God's creation is so incredible, and I am so blessed to be able to rest in it.

 Something changes in me when I walk on the beach. I'm usually a fairly level-headed person. I'm not a puddle-jumper, I give puddles a wide berth. But when I see the waves, I have to step into them! My intentions are usually that I'll just get my toes wet, but more often than not I need a towel on the car seat because I'm so wet! This is much to my dogs' chagrin as I'm usually walking one or both of them and they are not nearly as excited about the waves as I am. I think this used to annoy my husband, who is a bit of a neat freak and this woman dragging sand and a wet butt into his vehicle wasn't exciting. But now, I think he finds it cute. He doesn't even tell me not to go in the water anymore, I guess he's learned that's a fool's errand, he just offers to take the dog's leash so they don't have to get wet if they don't want to. Does he run and jump in the waves with me? No, that's not his thing and that's ok. But he enjoys me enjoying it, and that makes it even more fun for me! 

 Do I sleep better at the beach? I wish I could say, "Yes!" I wish I could say it was a magical place, and all my pain went away, and I could sleep for eight whole hours, but then I might not ever leave, so I'm sure God has a purpose in that as well. The thing is, I don't mind being awake so much here. I got up at 5am this morning, after having gotten less than 5 hours of broken sleep, and I was ready. I was wanting to get up, grab my coffee, and do my Bible study. At home, I'd be more likely to try taking some more medicine to get just a few more hours of sleep and clinging to my comforter. Is this better for me? I don't know, but it sure feels better!

 What do I do at the beach? Yes, I love walking on the sand, but if we're here for a week, I usually only do that once. I'll take walks around the block too, as our neighborhood is very foresty and green. But mostly, I write and we play games. I love playing board and card games almost as much as I love the beach, and here we get to do it WAY more than we do at home. At home there's always something I'm supposed to be doing, and my husband is busy with work and volunteering and house stuff. But here, it's just us. Yeah, he might work a little, but that gives me the opportunity to write a little! But two or three or four times a day one of us says, "Up for a game?" and the other one usually is. It's funny because I used to hate games. I played them with my kids when they were little because that's what a "good" mom was supposed to do, but I was miserable. In hindsight I couldn't tell you why, but somewhere about fifteen years ago, we were introduced to European games. These were so different from Monopoly and Scrabble that you could hardly put them into the same category. I was hooked! We began collecting them until we ran out of room (I have cupboards and shelves jam-packed full of them), and then we got the beach house and began filling that too! So, one of the reasons I love coming down here is that I get to sit at the table with my husband and demolish him! Ok, so I don't always win, but I often do, and I like winning 😂. I'm a tad bit competitive! I have a ton of fun if I lose too, so there's no pressure on him (I hope). 

 In Ocean Shores life has a slower pace. The cell service is slower. The wifi is slower. You're on beach time. There's no rush, no hurry. If you don't get to something today, it'll be there tomorrow. I'll often just sit and watch out the window. I love how the birds and the squirrels and the raccoons keep me more entertained than a TV show. My dogs love it here too. My oldest one, Shadow, was actually born in Ocean Shores, and it's like something in him recognizes that. When we're at the beach it's like he's ten years younger. He can't seem to help running in crazy circles around the house or, if we don't catch him fast enough, running up or down the stairs (we usually carry him because of his arthritis). Is he sore later? Yeah, but I don't think he correlates the two things, and his soreness doesn't seem to keep him from doing the same thing again then next time we take him out to go to the bathroom, which tells me just how much he enjoys it, and that's what really matters, right? I guess he feels the same way about his pain here that I do, it just doesn't matter as much.

Here's the Thing: I know the beach isn't for everyone, but it sure does it for me! My encouragement to you today is that you need to find you happy place. It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive or far away. Maybe it's a park down the street. Maybe it's your local library. Maybe it's a coffee shop (if so, make sure to sign up for their reward program!) Wherever it is, find it, and go there often. Give yourself permission to feel good, even when you don't feel good. Ok, so maybe that didn't make sense, but it does to me. I may not "feel" good in my body, but at the beach, I feel good in my soul, and that's what counts.