Living here in the Pacific Northwest sometimes causes me to have to pinch myself and gasp, “for real?!”
I spent the last moments of daylight on Friday evening (ahem, late afternoon) at the water’s edge with my crew (baby and 2 dogs) watching the golden sun sliver down behind the snow capped Olympic mountains. There were a few other families there at the same time and I could feel the shared peace among us, as we said good-day to that glorious orb in the sky.
On a routine Saturday morning walk around our neighborhood, we bumped into a woman who had a telescope set up and pointed at a pod of Orcas moving swiftly along in Puget Sound. Some neighbors and we took turns, watching them swim, play, and jump out of the water. For real?! Take the dogs for a walk and run into a pod of Orca whales? In the meantime, the seals were barking as usual, and the hummingbirds were playing their silly hummingbird games. And all a few blocks from my front door.
That afternoon we boarded the ferry over to Whidbey Island for an off-leash romp on the beach. The sun was out, the air was clear, the eagles were soaring, and I couldn’t help but feel just oh so good. Had it been a few degrees warmer I would have had to remove my shoes and bury my feet in the sand. As it was I left my shoes on and stood feet planted firmly in the Earth with my eyes and my heart gazing out over the ocean. It was all I could do not to stand with mouth hanging wide open, gasping over and over, “For real?!”
We played, we ran, we laughed, and we watched the light glitter across the water, noticing how different it seemed in December as opposed to in August. Again and again waves of gratitude flowed through me as I wondered how it is I get to be so very lucky to live in a place that deeply inspires me each and every day. For real?! I get to call this place home? What a joy.
