A Picnic with My Best Friend

I'm telling you, Peace Valley is my favorite place in the world. Just look at it!
Exhibit A:

My best friend, Julie, and I went for a picnic here yesterday evening. We prepared yummy grilled veggie sandwiches which we then smothered in mozzarella cheese and garlic mayo hoping that they didn't cancel out the healthiness of veggies. Health, we try. In our woven picnic basket we also had grapes, chips, and homemade chocolate chip cookies. We arrived at the park and spread a blanket with a dinosaur pattern on the dock over looking the water. The evening was warm and the smells of clover and honeysuckle surrounded us as we ate, not saying a word because our sandwiches were that fabulous. You would think that a view like the one above, the wide open sky and vast stretch of water sliced by the green forested horizon, would spark deep conversations about love, the meaning of life, relationships, etc. Sometime Julie and I do talk about deep topics and I love that, but not last night. The extent of our conversations stemmed from one rhetorical question. As we fed grapes to the ducks swimming past Julie asked, "What would you do if a Great White Shark jumped out of the water and ate the duck?" Slowly pulling my feet out of the water which had previously dangled carefree over the edge of the dock I replied, "I'd probably just stare, jaw dropped." As I search for magic in mundane moments, in hopes of keeping every moment of life a special one, I hope I never find a moment with my best friend dull or monotonous. Even the simple things we do, like running errands together, are not meaningless. Time is a precious thing and if I spend it with the ones I love, doing the things I love and maybe doing some things I'm not so fond of in order to become a stronger, better, more well-rounded person, I think that is time well spent.

So go on a picnic. And spend your time well.

Cloudy Skies

Disclaimer: I wrote this a few days ago.

A little less than a week ago I came home from a four month study abroad experience in Australia. It's weird to think that a week ago I was STILL there...I was packing to go home to good ol' forever cloudy Pennsylvania. (Side note: Contrary to popular belief Pennsylvania is not where the vampires live, that's Transylvania.) PA isn't really that cloudy...in fact it's a rather sunny state especially in the summer. But I've been home for five days and I haven't seen the sun once. Apparently, it's supposed to shine tomorrow. But I'll believe it when my face is sunburned and my skin is tanned by the ultraviolet rays that radiate down from the sky. 

Anyway, you might be thinking, what's the point of this? Why am I reading this? Well, for one you're probably procrastinating in which I say to you, "Good job." And second, I'm doing this as a challenge for myself. While in Australia I found that I really love writing. I knew it before, but I fell in love with it again. I love trying to describe things in a way that is unique, I love rambling until I forgot what I was talking about, and to me I can write better than I can speak. I can convey what I'm trying to say better in written words rather than verbally. Another thing that inspired me to start this blog was a video I watched in one of my classes (Watch it here.) It was about finding meaning in the mundane boring things of life. Things like standing in line at the grocery store while the little kid in front of you is screaming his head off and his mother is stressed beyond belief. Those moments are still sacred and they still hold value. Even though it’s a routine we have gone through countless times. So with my new found love for writing and as a challenge to find meaning in the seemingly meaningless I started this blog – a creative outlet for my mind.

I went for a jog the other day. I woke up at 8:00am to a dull, gray, sunless sky and spitting rain. Rummaging through the clothes that I still haven’t unpacked from my trip, I was on the hunt for a t-shirt, running shorts, and some motivation. I found two of the three. I dragged myself downstairs, made some cereal and plopped myself at the kitchen table. Staring out the window I thought, “Isn’t June supposed to be hot and sunny?” “Why am I doing this?” I envied my cat who was sound asleep on the couch. “Discipline. Making good habits and choices. That’s why I’m doing this.” With breakfast finished I drove to Peace Valley. (Which I just realized sounds like a hippie name or the kind of place you need to ride a unicorn to get to.) It’s not, but it is beautiful and one of my favorite places. A long winding path runs in and out of thick green forested areas along a man-made lake. The scent of honeysuckles permeates through the air. If the sun could smell like anything, I imagine it would smell like golden honeysuckle. Never mind that it’s gaseous ball of fire and probably smells more like something burning… My favorite part of the jog is the dam, where you can see the entire lake sparkling in the sun and bird swooping low over the water. (Clearly it wasn’t sparkling when I went because it was cloudy…) As I finished my jog and returned to my car all I could think was, “Welp, glad that’s out of the way.” Sometimes a workout doesn’t feel like it’s worth it and sometimes you don’t get the results you were hoping for. I never did find my motivation that day. All the other things I hoped to get done were pushed aside for the unexpected two hour nap I “accidentally” took. This motivation I speak of was swallowed up by the ominous clouds that loomed over my house this week. But you know what’s cool about overcast cloudy days? The sun is still shining above. And sooner or later the clouds will part and the warmth of that fireball in the sky will fill our faces and bring colorful vibrancy to the Earth. I guess there’s always something to look forward to.

Cheers