Life's a Beach

A captivating writer fills stories with imagery and analogies to enable his or her audience to grasp the complexity of a situation or the depth of emotions.  

The DESERT is often used to symbolize trials, barrenness or struggle in life.  It was not lost on me a few weeks ago that i live in the desert.  Symbolically i felt it.  It was a challenging week and i felt exhausted and drained.  Many of you sent me encouraging messages which meant so much to me.  

THANK YOU!

i believe there is much beauty to be found in the arid places in life, both physically and allegorically.  It is through trials and struggles that we are challenged to find ways to cultivated joy in the unexpected places.  

Look for it!  

Moments of true joy based on something other than circumstance can be breathtaking.

The past few days we are thankful to be gazing at a different view.  We consider ourselves super blessed, because although we are living in the second largest desert in the world, we also happen to be FIVE minutes from this... FIVE MINUTES!

Which means the last couple of days we have been enjoying the allegory of

LIFE'S A BEACH!

i am the girl that ALWAYS wanted to live on the beach.  My college roomies and i always had "plans" to move closer to the beach.  (Ahem, you know who you are!)  The closest i ever got i was 20 minutes to the nearest sandy shore.  Trust me, i worked every angle to strategically plan my classes so every Friday i was free to attended 'Oceanography 101' ... all day long.

At the time my sights were set on the Pacific Ocean with girlfriends, magazines and a Mai Tai.  i am happy to say now it's the Persian Gulf with my family, sand toys and juice boxes.  

The sand here is super fine and easily blankets little legs and toes in a covering of sugar.

The water is saltier than the Pacific and can sting your eyes, but see if we care.  Wading way out into the water and standing only waist deep is pretty fantastic, especially when you are under 4 feet tall.

We've spent days playing, 

relaxing and just being silly.  

(Camels on the beach hardly phase the Littles anymore.)

i revel in the calming blues, the constant lapping of the waves and the giggles of my children.  i love the smell of the sunscreen as i spray their skinny limbs that are dancing to dash out into the water.  A happy day is when searching for seashells was the toughest job you had.  From start to finish whole process is therapeutic for me.

 i don't even care when we get home and my kids wiggle out of their wet suits and i see copious amounts of itty bitty sea shells falling from their bodies scattering all over the floors.  

It's just a sweet reminder 

that life in the desert is sometimes a day at the beach!