Look up, Gulls!

Tonight I watched the sun melt into the ocean and a flock of gulls silhouettes fade to black across the sky.

For a few moments, everything seemed to slow down.

The waves continued their steady rhythm.

The breeze was soft and barely moving. The gulls soared effortlessly above it all allowing the wind to carry them. No fight, just surrender.

Just trust.

They weren’t fighting the changing sky or resisting the current. They were simply trusting the air beneath their wings.

In that second, it struck me how life parallels and how we struggle to label it all right.

We hold tightly to our plans. We worry about tomorrow. We exhaust ourselves trying to control outcomes that were never ours to control. Yet God whispers to us through his creation what he’s been showing us all along : trust me.

These birds, these gulls remind us that faith is not about knowing exactly where we’re going. Sometimes it’s about the one holding the wind.

It’s about keeping steady.

Nature speaks if we’re willing to listen.

For sure there is more to a sunset than what our eyes can consume and much more than our brain can interpret.

The ocean teaches us lessons everyday. It knows when to retreat and when to return. It evens knows how far to come. The tide rises and falls. Storms come and eventually go.

And through all this the gulls still soar! They just obey their call.

When the sand beneath our feet starts to shift and the path becomes foggy and unclear, perhaps we don’t need all the answers at once. Perhaps, we simply need more faith to spread our wings and trust God for the right current to move us along for the next stretch of our journey.

Maybe we look harder and look up!

As the light faded to dark and the gulls disappeared into the distance I stood there a little longer, grateful for another sea-note, not delivered from a pulpit, but from above the sky’s walls and beyond its borders. Deeper and wider than the sea.

Look up, Gulls! My faithful friends.

Sometimes the most profound messages arrive on wings.

a beachy point of view

It’s May Time! Finally the bridge from spring to summer has arrived.

This is the month of showy flowers and this gorgeous wisteria to start redecorating the trees with beautiful purple blooms standing tall and winding itself around anything within its reach.

It’s definitely the prettiest time of the year to get outside and walk comfortable before the dog days of summer bring out the heat.

This month is widely considered not only quiet optimism but a time of renewal and refresh making it a favorite time of the year for most of us. May is simply and unpolitically beautiful in Wilmington!

And don’t forget along the way to breathe in the smell of Jasmine that grows wild along the edges of the city. It’s tall evergreen bushes with small white flowers blooms hanging on the limbs.One word – intoxicating!

Remember friends, May begins our first evenings to extend daylight to 8pm making it a perfect month to grab more sunshine, maximize more serotonin, and vitamin D. Actually it’s called the month of Well-being.

Get out and smell the roses, enjoy! let me know what beautiful things you see…

Happy trails

If I were a mermaid what would my name be? Hidden deep in Greek mythology lies the mythological siren creatures of the sea, the mermaids.

Have you met one?

Is it folklore or do they lurk the ocean? Do you ever think about them when you’re swimming? I do! I’ve spent a good deal of my life watching the waves move back and forth on the shore wondering if mermaids are out there, imagining what it would be like to see one reveal themselves to me. To actually communicate!

Mermaids are often a tagline for millions of sea lovers who are bedazzled by the ideology of being like a mermaid, but really… who is?

I love the ocean and beach more than anyone else I’ve ever known and I know I’m no mermaid. And if I were a mermaid my name would be Ocean. What would your mermaid name be?

Happy trails!