Namaste and all that granola, y'all

Yesterday I did something I haven't done in a long, long time.

I relaxed.

It was completely unintentional, really. I mean, I did it completely by accident. I didn't set out yesterday planning to have a relaxing day. I was simply checking something off of my never ending to-do list.

See, my dad has this awesome condo he's selling. And when I say awesome, I mean freaking fantabulous. But you know, the market is bad, and the real estate agent that currently has it under contract hasn't been really showing it as aggressively as my dad would like, so when her contract is up he's decided to give it a go at selling it by owner.

Except for a couple of months, he's not going to be in town so he wanted me to show it for him while he's away. So anyway, to make a long story short (when people say that, the story is already too long), I went over to the beach to do a walk through of the condo with my dad so that I won't look like a total Spaz when people ask me questions.

And since it's spring break and the goblins are out of school, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and take them along with me. Mostly so that when they go back to school next week and people ask them what they did for spring break they won't say something like "I played on my iPod" or "I watched The Princess Bride 30 times" or something else that will make me look like I do nothing with my children.

But I digress.

The goblins had a great time frolicking in the waves and building sand castles and collecting shells and my dad and I sat on the beach and watched them. The breeze was beautiful, the sky was a perfect blue, there were hardly any people on the beach, there were a few sailboats in the distance, and there were fish jumping out in the ocean at random intervals.

Y'all, it was my happy place.

I mean seriously. You know when people tell you to close your eyes and go to your happy place? I was there. In real life. With my eyes open.

My feet buried in the warm sand, a diet coke in my cup holder, my dad and I having nice conversation, my children playing happily together, and the most beautiful view in the world. If a happy dolphin had leaped out of the ocean and done a back flip in front of us, I would not have even been surprised. It would have just been fitting.

I can't tell you how badly I needed to relax.

It's crazy how much I don't realize I need to stop and smell the roses every once in a while until something comes along and forces me to do it. It's not like I'm a workaholic or anything, no. I just have too damn much to do all the time. It's terribly difficult to relax when you're sitting in a house and all you can think about is how there's laundry to be done and eBay listings to tend to and email to be read.

But when I was sitting on that beach yesterday all those things were a million miles away. I couldn't deal with them right then so they just left my head. I didn't give the dirty dishes even the tiniest fraction of my thoughts.

Of course I came home to a dog that needed to go out and dishes in the sink and laundry that needed to be folded and email and all of that. But dealing with all of it after a day at the beach is totally different than dealing with it after I've just returned from the grocery store.

Take a day at the beach, y'all. Or the park. Or wherever your happy place is. Go there and forget about all the garbage going on. All that junk will be there when you get back.