DO YOUR CHEEKS HURT FROM SMILING
It’s 7 in the morning and the sun is relentlessly pursuing me with its bright white light. I’m oscillating between feeling a little hungover and wanting to go seize the morning light. My stomach is a bit queasy because of the wine from the night before, but my body is tingling with the warmth from the sun and I decide to bite the bullet, make coffee and sit on the dock. Besides, I have to take advantage of the days I have in the heaven that is my friends’ lakehouse (which they are oh so generous to let me visit), so screw the bit of queasiness.
And surrounded by the morning fog, the mid June heat mixed with perfect smell of coffee, I am overwhelmed with these thoughts:
Do your cheeks hurt from smiling so hard and is your skin blistered over from the sweetest summer sun’s warmest wishes?
[I remember posing this as a question in the notes section of my phone, and truly I’m not sure whom I am asking, but here we are.]
There is darkness in the world. Of course we all know the darkness of the world. But do you ever just close your eyes and hold your breath for a second and feel the magic of the earth and the whimsy of life?
If you haven’t felt this in a while I so so wish that you would and that you could because life is SHORT and there is MAGIC HERE. This week I felt the lake breeze brush through the pine trees and the soft brown earth beneath my bare feet and the crisp air of early New England summer. The intense heat of a campfire in the woods and the perfect all encapsulating coolness of the lake water around my over toasted skin at night. There’s nothing like it. Being forced awake at the schedule of the sun and its persistent light not letting you fall back to sleep. It’s on one hand annoying because I really need the sleep but on the other hand when do you get to hear the birds and smell the pine trees so early?
I hope you’re reading this (whoever you are, if you exist) and you’re being transported to a moment in which you felt ALIVE. A moment where you KNEW life was magic and that it’s short and that you just had to breathe it in and SAVOR it like the last bite of a very expensive buttery mushroom risotto.
Because, man… life just doesn’t care if you don’t stop to notice it. The days carry on and soon it’s weeks and then months and then years from now I’ll come back to read this and be so happy. That I decided to notice it.
If I teach my babies one thing- it will be to drink in this life. And that’s not a selfish thing- because if you don’t stop to drink this life in and really savor those simple things that make you smile- then you will have no drive to make sure others do the same.
—-end of early morning lake thoughts sponsored by wine, a few hours of great sleep, sunshine & coffee—
**Side note/PSA: I’m sure I’m not the only one who has suffered from the isolation/loneliness/strangeness of the pandemic. These are weird times for sure. My #1 recommendation to myself mostly, and to you: GET OUTSIDE. Mother nature is truly the best healer. I will continue to chase the sun and find new watering holes to heal all my pandemic introspection and I highly encourage you to do the same. :)
