Topsail Beach Labyrinth

I spent Memorial Day weekend at my new-favourite-beach, Topsail Beach. I was there to learn manual lymphatic drainage. I have not been this excited about a massage technique since I first learned percussor. Really, really AWESOME!  PLUS the class was in a house that was right on the beach. How cool is that?!  The last day I was there, I drew a full labyrinth on the beach:

OM.

And then we walked:

And by "we," I mean Brenda & Roy.

And the other Brenda. :-)

In the center.

Heading back out.

Gorgeous day!

OBX

A few pix . . .

No swimming.

Hooves!

Blogging will not be consistent this week, but I will post when I can. Have had fun taking walks on the beach & finding treasures with the kids. Am actually getting tan! :-) Back . . . sometime . . .

Day of Rest

My great-auntie Daisy & maternal grandmother.

May you have a sunny, breezy, day!

DELICIOUS

It's just the beginning of berry-picking season. These are red raspberries. Some people call them wineberries. To paraphrase Shakespeare, a berry by any name is still a berry. The leaves can be used to make a mild-tasting tea & help to relieve muscle cramps (yes, especially monthly ones). They also are a uterine tonic and help to prevent miscarriages.

I often liken my job with John Morgan Seminars to berry picking. There's a season. There's the bumper crop and then the slim pickin's toward the end of the season, but timing is everything. So I'm back to booking our fall season, a bit shorter than the new year. A few of my radio guys are on vacation. I got a "yes" from one at the beach. How nice that he can be at the beach and take care of things from there. I did something similar when I went to the beach last year with Brother D & extended fam. I would get up with the sunrise, have a couple hours on the beach and then work all a.m. & a bit of the afternoon. Someone said, "It's a shame you have to work." I said, "Are you kidding? I'M AT THE BEACH!" How many jobs do you know of where you have the freedom to work from anywhere as long as you have cell service & internet?

Back to the berries: they are v. juicy and sweet. Much like I'm feeling about life at this moment. It's nice when you have those moments of sweetness. :-)

Sending Warm Breezes

It rained all weeeeeeeeeeeeeek before I left to go to FL and now I've come back to...RAIN. It's cold and wet and drippy. This is where we dust off the sun-above-the-clouds metaphor. Whatever. So I'm remembering the beach from Sunday. Blue skies and breezes:

. . . and jelly fish:

Eeeewwww!!! ;-)

Whenever you wish for things to be other than they are, you just annoy yourself.

I'm paraphrasing Jerry Stocking, but you get the idea. So I'm not going to wish for the rain to stop. I've had a delightful,creative, quiet day of writing which would not have come about if it had been sunny and I went running out into the world to do busy-and-important things. Yay, me. :-)

Beach Labyrinth

While Brother D & BIL were working on their sand castle, I drew a labyrinth. People walking by would say, What is that? Kids would just walk right in. :-)

Castle Construction in the background.

Life is Like a Sandbox

I see hearts wherever I go.

'member when you were a child playing in a sandbox? There are a lot of life's lessons that we can take with us when we leave the sandbox. And go on to bigger sandboxes. Like the beach. Reminds me of a non-beach-related Dave Dobson story . . .

Dave was sitting in a bar with a friend and at the end of the bar were two men having an animated argument. One of those Yuh-huh/Nuh-uh arguments. His friend commented about the men and Dave replied, "I don't see 2 men, I see 2 two-year-olds running their patterns."

Back to the beach: The house we're staying in has come with all the amenities, including fabulous beach thingies, like a pretty multi-coloured umbrella. Our party left the umbrella to go have lunch and when we returned, the umbrella was under someone's lounge chair. AND they were not going to give it back. She was getting the umbrella and then another woman from the other party told SIL's sister, F, that she couldn't take it because it might be ours. Really??? Might?

The question is: How do you play in your sandbox? Are you kind? Do you share? Do you take things that don't belong to you and claim them for your own? Do you scream mine? Do you play well with others? Do you have a smile for strangers or are they automatic outsiders unworthy of your attention & caring? What patterns are you running?

Back to the umbrella: F is a v. patient mother and is in the midst of potty-training. She is adept at dealing with childish behaviour from children of all ages. She said something like, You had 2 umbrellas, now you have 3. We're missing ours that looks just like the one that is under your chair. Phew! She got back the umbrella.

I see hearts wherever I go.

Beach Sunrise & Backyard Labyrinth

I got up at 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise. It was cloudy, but a nice walk along the beach. In the end, the best pic I got was back at the house on the top deck.

This was just a quickie labyrinth I started while I was waiting for someone to show up with a key to the beach house. It takes 2 minutes to walk. We'll put the rocks back when we're finished playing. Last night chiro-sister made fish pies for dinner, v. yummy. Except they didn't thicken. This seafood chowder is so good you can eat it with a fork. Hahahaha After dinner, BIL got out his guitar and we had a sing-a-long. :-)

At the Beach

My brother has gotten me connected and has repaired the house's wifi whatever. Thanks, bro! This is this a.m.'s view from the top of the toppest deck on our beach cottage:

The sun is up, I'm so happy I could scream.

(Fat Bob reference, see previous post)

Last night at sunset.

*sigh* cute doggie prints

The house is AMAZING. It reminds me of step aerobics classes from the '90's--4 levels of stairs! All open & airy & gorgeous. My brother, the kitchen snob who travels with his fancy coffee maker and chef supplies, says this is the best house they've stayed at so far. Awesome kitchen: fab workspace, kitchen appliances, & even tupperware. Whoever owns this is all about family. Not just that, but there are sweet little messages from Joy around the house giving instructions on how to work things. It's been a v. welcoming experience. [Insert Spread a little JOY joke here.]

This is my first visit with my SIL's fam on their yearly beach vacation. Everyone is asking Where is your mother? Gearing up for her trip to Hungary to build a house with Habitat for Humanity. Ohhhhh...right...they say, followed by: How old is she? They are not surprised. We miss you, Mum! So that's my report from the beach. Back tomorrow! :-) H.

Present Moment

Years ago, I had some neighbors who had a condo in Ocean City and they would spend weekends and a few weeks there every summer. I had been regaled with tales of how wonderful . . . the restaurants were. We have to go to such-n-such place, they have the BEST fill-in-the-blank, they would say. So one summer, we went to visit for the day. They were right on the ocean with a beautiful view overlooking the water. There was lots of chit-chat, just wait til you get to the beach. Oh, it's beautiful. Then we made it down to the beach. As we were sitting on the beach: just wait til we have lunch, we'll go to ________, they have the best crab legs/cakes/soup/whatever. What made this extra-amusing to me was that my husband HATES seafood. Loathes it. Is allergic.

We didn't stay long on the beach because we were off to lunch. At lunch, as we are eating the-best-whatever: Just wait til we have dinner. We'll go to _____, they have the best....

Well, you get the idea. The present moment was preoccupied with the future. There was no present moment. It was also infused with a sense of urgent rushing to the Next Thing. It was . . . exhausting.

Next week, I'm going to the beach. I'm taking my books, I'm taking my juicer to make frozen banana smoothies. My brother, a gourmet chef, has meals planned and organized. We are going to spend time on the beach, building sandcastles, splashing in the water, collecting treasures. The BEST!

And since this is just a fantasy...

you can imagine having the beach all to yourself.... This is a quote from Dave Dobson's famous Beach Tape....It's amazing how you can be in a place for several years and still make new discoveries about your environment...my most recent is Terrapin Park. And yesterday I took a break to go for a walk....