Here Is Good

Happy 2014!!! Here we go ... !!! What will happen this year?!?! It's all very exciting to wonder about.

With almost the entire rest of the country in a deep freeze, and my home state of Minnesota being colder than MARS this week, I took it to be my duty to go to the beach yesterday on behalf of everyone who can't even go outside without the threat of freezing to death. I really didn't mean it in a rub your faces in it kind of way, just that if it was this nice out here, someone had better take advantage of it for everyone.

Which is the funny thing ... not many people were. I had the beach pretty much to myself, other than a giant dolphin party so close I could swim to them (if the water wasn't so cold). Those are the rewards (along with tan lines) that come with taking a few moments for yourself to appreciate the warmth, and where you are.

After listening to great music, having great thoughts and having a couple chats with great folks back home (not gloating, just chatting), I packed up to head home as it was kind of getting chilly as the sun went down. Not Mars chilly, but still.

On my walk home, I looked down to see once again, almost exactly what I'd been thinking, spray-painted on the sidewalk:

Here IS Good. And no matter where you are is good, if you make it so. Today especially reminds me of a favorite Camus quote that especially makes sense today, when so many people are dealing with the frigid air and feeling daunted ...

“In the midst of Winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible Summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” 

 BE the Summer. Here is Good.

 

 

 

Invincible Summer

There is not a much more beautiful feeling than seeing snow on the distant mountains when your bare feet are in the sand, waves washing up against them. It's pretty poetic.

Walking along the sand this morning, as a blizzard is swirling around my loved ones back home in Minnesota, and I looked at the snow on the San Gabriels, I thought of an old and favorite quote of mine:

"In the midst of Winter, I suddenly discovered there was in me an invincible Summer." - Camus

Invincible!