I live in a part of the country where a lot of people come to vacation. We get people from all over the United States, actually citizens from all over the world, visiting our neck of the woods. Currently, I am spending some time in one of the resort towns near to my home. There are advantages and disadvantages to living in an area like this.
I don’t love the crowds, nor the drivers who seem perpetually lost. I do appreciate the revenue and the jobs that are created for the people, like me, who live here. What I love the most, though, is the constant reminder of just how lucky I am to live in my lovely space on this Earth and that fact, is often reflected back to me, when I see the happy, excited faces of the people who have journeyed here, pointedly, to visit my home. Whenever, I stroll along one of our beach roads, I hear the happy chatter of love and excitement, no matter what language that chatter is being spoken in. I often see speechless wonder and awe reflected in lovely faces, young and old, particularly around sunset time. I experience renewal of my own wonder and awe and my own joy of being, when I take the time to see my living experience reflected back to me by a new, fresh outlook of a person’s eyes, who is visiting my town for the first time.
This isn’t an isolated experience for people who live in vacation land, though. I have visited lots of different towns, with many unique climates over the many decades of my life, and I have enjoyed every single experience. The novelty of a place different than my own experience is always so refreshing and revitalizing. When we go to somewhere new to us, it’s like we get to be babies again, looking at everything with a new found amazement, fascination, reverence . . . .
What is the best lesson about this experience, is that we can choose to live our own lives, in this frame of reference, every single day, if we just slow down and really experience how truly breathtaking it is to be alive. I hurriedly took my dogs out into our back yard the other day, thinking about my long to-do list in my head, and trying to get the dogs to rush to do their business quickly. Ralphie, our Labrador retriever, got stubborn and he refused to move. Luckily, I took that as a clue for me to slow down, too. I started noticing just how beautiful a small snippet of nature is and just how much life is teeming in just one little corner of a yard. The grass, the flowers, the wind, the insects, the birds, the rocks, the soil . . . . .
I think I am going to try to live my life like a newcomer more often. I’m so thankful for the perspective change, visitors to my town, give back to me. Life is such a blessing, if we pull out the lens and slow our strides and just take the time to take notice.