splendid sunsets

Holy moly, right?

Between the sand beneath our toes, the smell of salt water breezily blowing around us and a sky that looked like a painting sent straight from the Universe to our eye's delight, it was hard not to breathe a little more deeply our last weekend in SF before hopping on a plane to our dear old east coast.

Heading into the heart of the holidays, it was important for me to remember this kind of calm.

I have a tendency during hustle bustle moments to become what some (like B) might call a tad....neurotic.

A bit...sensitive, at times.

Maybe even slightly worrisome.

There are flights to catch and presents to find and lists to finalize. There are overweight suitcases and pants that have become a bit too tight and hair that should have been trimmed weeks ago now annoyingly tangling any way it pleases. There are lunches and dinners and coffee dates booked solid in an attempt to see everyone who was anyone to me for the first 24 years of my life. There is work to monitor and cold weather to loathe and budgets to keep in check. There is time to manage and folks to potentially disappoint when time runs out and the west coast beckons again.

But negatively worrying about all these things is truly like praying for things you don't want, and while I have little to no control over much of life, it's important to remember I can...at anytime...zero in on the memory of such a splendid sunset to bring me back to more positive thoughts.

Because there are also fireplaces and my mismatched socks (I can't keep a proper pair together for the life of me) peeking out from layers of snuggly blankets beside them. There are old, dear, and wonderful friends to hug and kiss and laugh with. There is family to cherish. There are acts of giving and receiving. There are memories recalled and new memories to be made. There are milestones celebrated and well wishes spread. There is food to savor and wine to sip and stretch pants to wear so I don't give a hoot about the holiday muffin top inevitably forming on my frame. There is patience and forgiveness exercised and things (or people) who no longer serve me released.

There is much to be thankful for, to say the least.

So I hope this holiday season you've remembered to zero in on something warm and beautiful, too. I hope you've found calm in your hustle bustle, and I hope you are looking towards 2014 through eyes of a splendid sunset.

In Gratitude,

Trish