The way we look at things

Wednesday the kids and I hit the beach. It was well PERFECT. The day was beautiful, the beach was wonderful, empty, warm, inviting......ok Ill stop, but it truly was a day sliced out of heaven. I look at days like Wednesday as a gift. Something to hold onto and squeeze each moment of joy out of on those days when we feel we are struggling to hold onto hope. Wednesday gave me ample suppy for some time to come. I don't think I can easily sum up in words in one post how many things the Lord shared and blessed me with that day but Ill do my best to at least give you a glimpse of what and how the day began.

After we woke up and I made a mess of the kitchen making crepes, we cleaned things up and packed up the cooler, threw on our suits and headed off towards the coast. Its only 10 minutes from my home, so its not long of a drive. Ashley busted her board the week before at the beach, I had in my attempt to save money picked up a cheaper board thinking it would be good enough till the end of this season. She had it for exactly 3 weeks and...........the leash pulled straight through. They call these tourist boards, not ones for locals, I don't really see the rationale in that...sure make the tourists mad so they don't come back and spend some more money. We stopped at Sports Authority on the way. No luck, all they had was cheap boards, and the clerk he admitted it right away, told us to hit the surf shop, which I knew where it was, and off we went.

If you have never been inside of a surf shop, I highly recommend it once in your life. Its fun! No thats not the lingo, ITS SO RAD DUDE! no that just doesn't sound right either, man I do hope its not my age sitting in. Anyway, it is a pretty cool experience! You have guys and girls working in a shop selling things and working with the things they just adore.....boards and gear. They love their job, they are the happiest people you will ever meet, and my daughter Ashley, whos almost 13, just kept asking me over and over again, HOW come they are SO nice mom? Sad huh, but thats just the reality of living in Southern California, most people you will encouter in the stores just don't enjoy they jobs. So, we shopped for the perfect board (within a decent price range) and off to the beach we went. The kids were worried it was going to be too cold. Too cold in AUGUST! But the water has cooled down compared to that July heat wave we had. But on Wednesday, the water, the sand, the beach.....it was perfect and then.............

DOLPHINS! But before I go on let me back track a little. Once we set up, into the water they went, down into the sand to relax I sat. I love the beach. I love to sit and stare at the water, listen to the waves crash against the short, the sea gulls over head (ok unless they are directly over MY head) and well all of it. Young couples holding hands walking along the shoreline, children dancing in the water, old couples walking arm in arm pointing to the boats out at sea. Sitting at the beach is a piece of heaven (most days). So I pulled out my notebook and started outlining my book. I got quite a bit done, and then decided to pull out one of the half dozen books Im reading titled... "The First Five Pages, A Writers Guide to staying out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman" I was having a hard time staying focused on it, so I pulled out another book that I had thought to throw in last minute before leaving. "The prayer of Jabez" I first read this book completely a few months ago, but it was on my mind again that morning so I pulled it out and took it with me. I only read two chapters of it (mind you its a tiny book) and stopped and prayed for a bit. And then, the day just became filled with one instance of God after another. I say that and realize that for someone stumbling across this site you might think, Oh yeah, Jesus Freak! Ok well, I am a bit of a freak, but honestly there are something in life that you know I honestly have to stop and say, yep that was a God thing. Wednesday had that over and over again.

"Oh that you would bless me indeed"

After I put the book down one of the two younger kids came running up to tell me about the dolphins. They had been swimming just feet away from the kids. I've lived in Southern California all my life, its not all that surprising to see Dolphins. They are a regular event on our coast line. But Wednesday they just hung around. Usually the dolphins will swim by and just follow along the coast line. Wednesday they swam in circles, dancing, playing, and jumping around in the water. We watched them for at least a half hour playing right were we were sitting or surfing. They did move further back, but still close enough to watch. I grabbed my camera and did my best to take some shots. I laugh about it, because it was so much fun to watch it was hard to keep my eye on the camera to see if I was shooting in the right spot. I ended up with a lot of ocean shots, and sky shots. But I did capture a few shots of them out in the water on my Flickr account . That was just the beginning. When they finally took off I picked up another book and had as Luke titled it, an epiphany. Im not going to go into that specific thing yet, but suffice it to say, it grabbed my attention.

Ashley had tried to surf for most of that afternoon, and eventually she came in with a bad headache, so we decided to head home. More Awesomeness was just around the corner..........