After having a couple of friends back out of our Wednesday hiking plan (for good reasons of course), I decided to go to Torrey Pines by myself. I haven't really been "hiking" by myself before, but I knew the route from previous trips and with my stubborn will still wanting to hike on this sunny morning, I set off to TP.
For some reason there was something about going by myself that almost made it more appealing. Maybe just appealing in a different way. I was totally aware of the sounds in the plants around me, of the light wind that I was more than thankful for as I was sweating from the heat already, or of the little peaks of ocean views I could see between the trees. It was my first time hiking since Greece, and I found myself missing it, but appreciated the experience I was in because how at peace I was feeling. Maybe not entirely as my mind would not completely shut off, but maybe the most peace I could take in at that moment.
I was able to once again let my camera take as many pictures as it wanted, with no obligations to smiles that could only be held for so long. I just snapped what was around me and it was enough.
Thankfully the tide was low enough to take the beach route back to the parking lot, so I walked along the wet sand, shoes in hand. Letting the water swallow my feet. These are the times I'm reminded how much I love living here.
After making it back to my car, I drove back and helped my friend load some packed boxes into our two cars, and carry them into the post office (there were about 18 hefty boxes. Got my workout today!) Her family is moving to Alaska (fingers crossed I can go visit them at some point:) and this next chapter is a bittersweet one for everyone. I said goodbye to her house that had so many fun memories of jacuzzi's and watching movies, eating club sandwiches, making 'smores and singing into hairbrushes. But those were special times that remain just as precious in my head, even when the house itself goes to a new family.
I came home, my arms (and legs from my morning walk) feeling pretty heavy at that point, and decided to do some reading in the backyard (reading in general is a rarity for me) and I'm actually really enjoying the book so far!
I'm reading the book Love Does by Bob Goff (a professor at my school) for a book group with some friends. And once again being outside on the lounge chair, reading, was just the relaxed time I needed. Not to mention made me laugh a few times, and do a little reflection on how I'm living life.
I highly recommend it! Definitely not a boring read with his humorous life stories, and pretty much guaranteed to be applicable wherever you are in life right now.
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| Looked almost like candy! |
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| My favorite tree. Looks like it's arms are open looking up at the sky! |
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| My new kicks, trying to rough them up a little bit |
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| The color of the water looked even more beautiful with my sunglasses on |
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| He was trying to figure out his route... |
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| Take one. Camera timer way too short |
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| Take two. Head cut off, but kinda a cool shot |
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| Hooray I found it! |
"Being engaged isn't just an event...being engaged is a way of doing life, a way of living and loving. It's about going to extremes and expressing the bright hope that life offers us, a hope that makes us brave and expels darkness with light."
"It makes me wonder if the trees and mountains and rivers are things He planned in advance, knowing they would wow us."
"The world can make you think that love can be picked up at a garage sale or enveloped in a Hallmark card. But the kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence."
"Love is never stationary."
"I have a different way I measure those things now. God finds us in our failures and our successes, and He says that while we used to think one way about things, now He wants us to think another way about those same things."
"I used to think being loved was the greatest thing to think about,
but now I know love is never satisfied just thinking about it."
