How is August almost over?? Where did the summer go?? No, I mean really – where did the summer go???
Camps, swimming, sleeping in, lunch dates, fairs … it all went by way too fast. My kids are starting their second week of school and it already seems like a distant memory as we get back to schedules (which isn’t entirely a bad thing.)
Even our family vacation, which was just 3 weeks ago, seems so far away. So in an effort to keep it fresh in my mind I decided to share one of my favorite parts with you. We visited Jekyll Island, along the coast of Georgia. I had been there once with my parents the summer after I finished 5th grade, so I was curious to see if it was what I remembered. (For the record, it wasn’t. Or at least my memory of it wasn’t. Well, part of it was – the beach. But I didn’t remember anything else on the island except the hotel we stayed in.)
This was the first time my kids have been to the ocean since they were toddlers, so they were excited to put their feet in.
We spent time on the beach…
the Georgia Sea Turtle Center…
watching dolphins…
As the boat captain said, trying to take pictures of dolphins is like trying to photograph lightening.
and enjoying life at a slower pace.
Sunrise
But one of the most amazing places we saw was called Driftwood Beach. This beach, on the northern tip of the island, is a landing spot for all kinds of trees. Walking through the brush onto the beach literally took my breath away.
At first, all I could see was the trees. Enormous trees. Scraggly trees. Dead trees.
But the longer I stayed, the longer I noticed there was more. The beach was teeming with life in and around the trees.
And I noticed something else.
Beauty.
Such amazing beauty.
It’s a lesson I’ve learned many times in my life, but one I always seem to need reminded of … beauty is found beyond the obvious.
It’s in the big, monstrous.
It’s in the tiny, microscopic.
It’s in the dead.
It’s in the empty.
It’s in the light.
It’s in the dark.
It may take 15 hours in a mini-van to find it.
But it’s also there when I open my eyes every morning.
~mwe
Dendrochronology 