Positive Focus Thursday - The Beach and Life Lessons

I have been back in North Carolina for almost 2 years now and just haven't gotten it together to make it to the beach. It is about 3 hours away, so not just a quick dash. But I could never coordinate days off, money to spend on gas, and worried about if the car would make it without issues.

So with the acquisition of 'Harry' (my Subaru Forester named after Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher books), I headed out. Naming my car Harry is a bit funny as the character really doesn't have great luck with vehicles. But he is a member of the White Council and the Winter Knight, so White Knight.

Anyway...



Monday morning I packed a picnic basket and a change of clothes, pulling away from the house at 5:00 a.m. 

The weather at the beach was supposed to be nice. Low 70's, sunny. And I was doing it alone.

Yes, all by myself!

At 8:45 a.m. I was parked and kicking my shoes off with this view.

Carolina Beach! (Although Savvy claims if she isn't there, how can it really be Carolina Beach.)

Pelicans were flying by. Relatively few sea gulls, much to my surprise.

There were also very few people on the beach too.

Just me and the sound of the waves. I could feel the stress melting away with each step. I walked about 45 minutes down the beach one way, before turning around and walking back to where I entered the beach.

Which leads me to the first epiphany of the day...

Walking down the beach I was constantly searching for shells. When I turned around to walk back, I was still looking for shells. And I realized...

By turning around and looking at it from a different perspective, I saw things I hadn't seen before.

Isn't that like 'issues' we have in life? We all face situations we look at from just one direction. Maybe if we turned around and looked at it from a different point of view, we might see something we didn't see before.

Doesn't mean we change out minds. I still didn't pick up certain shells I had passed over before. But it did allow me to appreciate others from the other side. 

After a couple of hours at Carolina Beach, I moved down to Ft. Fisher and went to the aquarium.

 

I can't wait to take Lady K to the aquarium.

I then walked down the Ft. Fisher beach for another couple of hours. 

Even on the Ft. Fisher beach I was surprised by the number of feathers I saw.

An aside about me and feathers.

To me, I feel when I find a feather, it is a 'blessing'. Finding a feather reminds me to be mindful of all I do have in my life and that I should be grateful for these blessings.

I also feel, regardless of what you do or don't believe it, what church you worship in or don't, there is 'something' out there bigger than all of us. Whether you call it God(s) or Goddess(es), there is something. And you should be aware of when blessings come your way. Like how things fell together recently for me to purchase 'Harry'.

But there were feathers everywhere. I guess all the birds are molting or someone ran down the beach with a feather pillow, throwing feathers. And I was picking them up.

Then I stopped and thought about it. One, there was no way I could pick up all the feathers (blessings) on the beach that day. Secondly, if I tried, wouldn't I go from being grateful for the blessing(s) to just being greedy? To me, if I started snatching all the feathers it would turn from a wonderful gift to being something to acquire. 

There were a few people who couldn't believe I went to the beach by myself. However, it was a perfect day. Six miles of walking on sand, listening to the sound of the waves. I could feel the stress drop from my shoulders and my breathing deepen. 

And a lot of reflecting on how good my life really is and all I have to be thankful for.