This is our vacation out of office week. Everyone home. Eating. Laughing. Swimming. Drinking. Running. Loving. Together.
Lucky us, right?
These last weeks of summer, stop reading the hate tweets, stop scanning the headlines for the latest outrage, and stop worrying about the outcome next November. Instead, why not take a moment to see flowers, to hear joy, and to feel warmth? Be grateful. Remember you love life.
#summerwins
XXOO
Living in the rural and magnificent state of Vermont gives us countless opportunity to walk, swim, and rejoice in clean air and water. Rivers, large and small, and lakes dot the picture perfect landscape, and if you are willing to hike a bit, waterfalls too abound. Recently, we spent a few afternoons when the sun was bright and warm seeking out a variety of swimming holes. Lucky us, right?
As much as mistakes are heralded and lauded in each commencement speech from Harvard to Stanford, they seldom feel that way while you are free-falling out of control. Like when you lose your home. Or job. Or mother. Or marriage. Or health. The sensation of spinning is never a welcome sensation. Instead, we flail about trying to latch on to anything to prevent the inevitable broken bones we receive on impact; desperate to cling to every hope, false or otherwise, that eases us down.
But the truth is, as you lay for some time in the dust, you realize, you must rise again. You simply must. And eventually we do. We don our finest and face the disaster head on. Probably not at first, but if we survive the catastrophe, or for some, multiple catastrophes, we simply must stand. Personally, I am buoyed by Vince Lambardi’s words, “It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.” I guess you could say this has been my motto, and one that keeps me looking up and out, smiling, as I get my feet under me once again.
Nine Cent Girl 