365 Inspirations—332: Spending Time with Family

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Today, on this gorgeous day, we took a ferry and then drove out to the Olympic Peninsula to my mom and step-dad's house. 

It was so lovely to reconnect with everyone and spend some time together.

I brought two pies, but my brother-in-law cooked most of the meal and everyone else had the side-dishes covered.

We ate dinner early and then we all went for a sunset walk down to the beach.

 It was great catching up with my nephews who I feel like I haven't seen forever.

I was happy to learn about what they've been up. I enjoyed watching them build with blocks and seeing their creativity come out.

Now we are in a hotel down the street. My sister is in this hotel too with her family. There's not enough space in my mom's place for us all to stay over, so we stay close by and then we can hang out a bit more the next day. 

Tomorrow we may go on a hike if the weather is nice.

I heard snow is in the forecast!

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Did you spend it with your family?

365 Inspirations—112: Breaking Patterns and Feeling What's Right

Observatory at Mauna Kea

"The sky is closer than I've ever seen it, ready to spill its secrets."—Peter Fish

I'm a night teacher, so I tend to get up a little later than most people. I usually eat breakfast with my husband at 8:00AM or so. We have a nice, leisurely breakfast together. It's my favorite part of the day. While most people are rushing out the door and barely have time for a bite to eat, my husband is often humming in the kitchen to a song on the radio while cooking up eggs or slicing fruit and making coffee.

Sometimes I'm the breakfast person, but he usually wanders into the kitchen before I do in the morning, so he becomes the breakfast person.

Not today.

Something happened today.

I woke up at 7:00AM wide awake. I quietly got dressed and told my husband I was heading out for a walk around Greenlake, Seattle's equivalent of Central Park, and that he was welcome to come with me.

He said, "No, that's okay. You go ahead. I've got class at 9:45AM." I never miss breakfast with my husband, but the lake, sun and water were calling me quite loudly and I was listening.

I got to the lake and a huge smile spread across my face when I saw a gaggle of Canadian geese and their babies. It was so precious and something I rarely see.

At Greenlake in Seattle this morning

I walked at a brisk pace and found myself humming "Home" by Mumford and Sons. Before long, I burst into song, and didn't even seem to recognize how loud I was. I sang this:

"Hold on, to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home..."


This was my theme song while walking and it made so much sense to me at this time in my life when nothing is making sense. I'm starting to break patterns. I'm just doing what feels right.

I looked down on the path in front of me and could have sworn I saw a Hawaiian lei just waiting for me to put it on. It turned out to be a cherry blossom branch. Were my eyes playing tricks on me?

When I got home, I flipped through my new Sunset Magazine for May and right before putting it down I flipped to the back page which has a picture of millions of stars and all the telescopes at the observatory on top of Mauna Kea, on the big island of Hawaii.

Peter Fish, the author of the story, said, "The sky is closer than I've ever seen it, ready to spill its secrets."

I'm listening....I'm REALLY listening and feeling this time. I am ready to discover those secrets!

Have you recently done something you don't usually do because it felt right?