Ten Trips Around the Sun

One decade ago this week, this blog was launched.

(See below for the very first post!)

I am humbly grateful for having the privilege of being a part of the WordPress community and for the incredibly kind, talented and amazing human beings who together make up this wonderful blogosphere.

Thank you so very much for ten phenomenal years of discovery, growth, friendships and untold joys. A lot can happen in a decade on a beach…tides shift, precious shells wash up and get swept back out to sea, storms destroy and God heals, and the sun always comes out again.

Thank you for sharing this beach with me. xo

It all started with this:

https://southernseamuse.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/pullupabeachchair/

Pull up a beach chair…

July 7, 2011 by Southern Sea Muse

Welcome, my friend…to my blog and to my world. Let’s sit and ponder things together…growing stronger and wiser from having the courage to take the risk of entertaining thoughts both inside and outside of our comfort zones, to find peace in change, strength in weakness, joy in despair.

As we contemplate, our chairs may shift and settle and get stuck in the sand, but we know that the momentary sense of stability in being grounded in what feels firm and solid, will ultimately give way to that disturbing realization of relinquished control as the water rises seemingly without notice. Then we suddenly find  the impetus to pick up our beach chair and move it to a new place to enjoy yet another perspective, building on our previous vantage point. Perhaps a little higher, perhaps a little farther, but either way, we have been moved, forced to change, and to experience a renewed sense of security, even though in the back of our mind we know it will change again with the rhythm of the seashore.

Let this rhythm be our lullaby to cradle us through the sometimes startling, sometimes soothing tides of change.

Come sit a spell, lie back and relax, dig your toes in the warm sand, deeply inhale the sweet sea mist….

….and Listen………..

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Gratitude at Latitude 30.5230°

This week of Thanksgiving in the U.S., I decided to begin a few new traditions.

Research shows that you can improve both mood and health throughout the day by identifying one or more (different) things you’re grateful for, first thing in the morning. No more than 1-2, however, since studies also show that listing 5 or more dilutes the gratitude and its benefits.

So in that predawn hazy zone of waking up and just before I open my eyes, I then count a blessing or two.

(I wonder if saying a gratitude just before drifting off at night would yield better slumber and/or dreams?)

Our longstanding Thanksgiving family tradition is to walk off our feast down at the town pier at sunset. We are always thankful for the friends and beautiful scenes we see:

Cast netting…he might bring up crabs, mullet, shrimp, shark, eel or redfish

Colorful kayaks await tomorrow’s paddlers

A pelican under a wavy ribbon of clouds

Crimson Tide

Quiet fishing

Mother/daughter bonding through texting?

Roll, Tide, Roll!

Contemplation? Praying? No, hunched over texting…

Nautical Christmas spirit!

Serenity indeed…

Life is good at this latitude!

Thank You, God, for a holiday with a sole purpose of gathering to give thanks and gratitude for blessings past, present and for blessings to come. Thanks for the privilege of life, the bounty of love and the gift of mercy.

Thanks for beauty everywhere…for precious time…for forgiveness…for laughter…and for those people and things You that touch our lives in ways that make the world a better place along our journey.

May we never take these gifts for granted and always be grateful.

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