Try to convince me
That fat free
Tastes
As good as the real thing
You get a chance
To enjoy
One of God's given senses
And then the experts say,
"Cut that out!
It's bad for you!"
It is the simple things
That bring the
Most joy
Cold water, a crust of bread, a patch of shade
But the water has too many unhealthy chemicals
Bread has too many carbs
And being outdoors means breathing pollutants
I say
Drink -- quench your thirst
Eat -- take a bite out of life and taste its sweetness
Explore -- find adventure wherever and whenever you can
Close your ears to the "healthy diet experts"
And LIVE
As many of you already know, this week, my daughter's car was broken into, and both of our purses were stolen. We were on vacation and hadn't even made it to our destination yet. You would think that we would give up, turn around, and head home. Nope! That's not who we are. Instead, we decided that this was an adventure and that we were up to the challenge. We spent three days camping on the beach with absolutely no way to access our finances. We did have a guardian angel who helped us stay afloat. There are lessons to be learned here.
Lesson #1: Read the poem above. No matter what anyone else says, live and love every moment of the life you've been given. Eat that extra scoop of ice cream, drink that glass of wine, lay out on the beach all afternoon and soak up the sun. I'm not saying be irresponsible. Don't eat a gallon of ice cream every day. Don't drink to excess. And definitely, definitely wear sunscreen. But the lesson here is that sometimes others will try to steal your joy. Simply, don't let them.
Lesson #2: There are angels here on earth. A lovely man whose name I did not get drove up the road for us and called the sheriff's office. We were in a remote area with very little phone service. When the sheriff showed up, he was so empathetic and even helped to remove the glass that was hanging into the car. Turns out he wasn't even the sheriff on the call. He just saw that we were in distress and stopped to help. We also had that lovely human being that helped us out financially so that we could afford to get wood for our fire and gas so that we could get home. Even in the face of bad people invading our lives, there were way more beautiful souls that we encountered in this circumstance.
Lesson #3: Have faith! So far, our finances have not been at all compromised. It's still early into the ordeal, but the perpetrators pretty much only got away with $6 and a couple of cute purses. We both spent time in meditation and prayer, and we were heard.
Lesson #4: You don't need stuff to have a good time. We had an amazing mother/daughter bonding vacation. The weather was gorgeous. We cooked over an open fire, we discovered a new favorite coffee shop, we figured out how to make a temporary window, and we did not give up. And you know what? It was freaking fun!
Don't listen to the naysayers friends, and take time to enjoy these beautiful summer days.