Vacation is more than a recipe for tuning out… its a recipe for tuning in.
Traveling down the one in California is a therapeutic journey past the scenery that reminds us why life is such a gift. The vast expanse of the ocean with its cacophony of sound producing a symphony that lays a beat pounding against the rugged shore fills the senses with the salty recipe of negative ions.
This symphony expands to include the shore, inland, mountainous ravines, and oh yes… the greatest super bloom in years, the wildflowers. Carpeting the wild grass are Dandy-lion, Lupin, Mustard, Godetia, Elegant clarkia, Blue thimble flower, Daisy’s, Menzies with their baby blue eyes, and of course hundreds of thousands of the state flower, the Golden Poppy.
Our senses are alive with the sound, smell, and color scheme from God’s artistic palette. Each brushstroke is more beautiful than the last. Each corner reveals a new spectacle with the juxtaposition of rugged, smooth, soft, and the wind that blows the wildflowers into a frenzy ushering up a siren song that beckons another curtain call from the seagulls that circle above.
Before you reach Carmel and Monterey you will pass through Big Sur, or as I call it “Middle Earth”. If you are lucky enough to stay there you will see the Ents (from the Hobbit). I thought Treebeard was a mythical character from the J.R. Tolkien fantasy of middle earth. However, after walking the grounds near the Glen Oaks Lodge we discovered the very tall and majestic Ents (redwoods) that speak to their grandeur.
Forming a boundary around fern groves, cascading wild flowers down to raging streams the Ents stand as tall Centurions guarding the forest from the hand of man. Each step down the path takes us back in time as we witness the spectacle that is nature. This refreshing breath of life is a vibrant reminder of the things that are important… reading between the lines of a poem with the soft expression of song that lifts our spirits and rejuvenates our zest for the love that makes it all worth while.
If you are lucky enough to dance through life to a song that you’ve orchestrated then you are the conductor of a movement that becomes a legacy sung by those you love and care about. Enjoy every step as though its your last and every smile as though its your first.
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