My guest today for Treasure the Quiet Moments is Cindy Jones. A Beautiful Day highlights her need for a restful day following Black Friday rush and the call to see the beauty in each day.
A Beautiful Day is Like Finding Treasure
After wrapping up all the Thanksgiving cooking and Black Friday shopping, a day of relaxation was needed! My husband, Bryan, and I drove out to one of our favorite spots to walk the empty and peaceful shoreline along Fort Morgan on the Alabama Gulf. It’s a hidden treasure that’s off the beaten path, no condos and only a handful of homes. The treasures, shells, driftwood, washed up items of every sort, are basically untouched and footprints along the white sand are few.
I love it here.
We walk picking up the treasures that capture our attention, sit and listen to the waves, watch the birds and crabs, and breathe in the freshness of salt air.
A Beautiful Day is Refreshing
My body and mind slows from the hectic pace and I remember the reasons of why we wanted to move here so badly. The Beauty around us is refreshing, it restores our energy and eases the tensions of busy schedules. It’s the best kind of therapy and it’s free.
We look at the animal and bird tracks left behind and try to imagine what was there, a beaver, a coyote, a hermit crab, hungry seagulls? The tiny and medium prints left behind tell a story as do ours. Sometimes side by side, other times apart as we are distracted and wander interested in some type of object, or they disappear where we’ve journeyed toward the surf and into the waves.
Life is like that only we don’t notice the tracks we’re leaving behind. They are mostly invisible but some shine like the sun. Those moments when we took time to be kind to others, did an unselfish act, gave encouragement to a hurting person. Every single day we have a choice about what type of tracks we leave behind.
A Beautiful Day is a Gift
I’ve decided to live each day as a beautiful day, savoring the beauty around me and making sure I make someone else’s day beautiful as well. It’s not easy, it’s hard. It’s hard to be unselfish, to take second place, to be humble and grateful and peaceful, it’s hard work.
But I believe it’s worth it like finding all the treasures on our beach walks. To some, our treasures probably look like trash, but what a wonderful thing to find beauty in something ordinary. Something washed and rolled in the turbulence of sand and drowned in the depths of the sea only to turn up on the white sand, smooth and polished.
That’s us. We are tossed and turned in the storms of life, but those same chaotic times are the moments where we are changed from ordinary to beautiful treasures.
The quiet moments are the aha moments that we realize… maybe the chaos helps us to appreciate the silence, the calm, the serene.
It’s hard to find silent or still moments during the holidays, but if you don’t, you may end up missing everything you wanted to enjoy.
A Beautiful Day Brings Focus
A walk around your neighborhood, along a mountain pathway, or a shoreline can help you focus on what’s truly important. The creation around you, the family that sometimes gets on your nerves, the ability to walk, talk, think. The many blessings tucked among all the mundane problems and irritabilities.
Embrace your trials and troubles and know that these are the BEAUTIFUL DAYS not to be wasted.
Cindy
Tweetables:
It’s hard to find silent or still moments during the holidays [Tweet This]
We have a choice about what type of tracks we leave behind [Tweet This]
Cindy has written feature articles and columns appearing in publications such as; Thriving Family by Focus on the Family, Journey Devotional for Women, Birmingham Magazine, Birmingham Business Journal, Birmingham Parent, and The Old Schoolhouse. She is also a published author with Oak Tara Publishing and Negative Capability Publishers in Mobile.
Cindy is presently a featured contributor to RootsRated.Com, an online city guide website and app dedicated to local experts and outdoor recreation.
Connect with Cindy on her Website, Blog or on her social media pages: Twitter, FB Page, Linkedin, Google +
Cindy, thank you for reminding us of nature’s beauty. A place where stillness can wrap us in His love. Taking time to seek these during the busyness of life can bring His “refreshing.”
Jan
Jan, I agree. It is like a time out for adults 🙂 It reorients our perspective and helps us to see Him more clearly.
You are welcome Jan. We have enjoyed moving here to Gulf Shores and it offers so much nature to enjoy, it has been refreshing living here. Thank you for your comments.
We love to walk on a beautiful day, also. We live 1/2 a mile from Goddard Park. It has horses and an ocean view. We are blessed. I love the talks that I have with my son while we walk. He is open and shares more at those times. If you have a teen you know how much they talk ;). Thank you for sharing.