What makes me feel peaceful

The piano interlude at the end of Layla

Drinking coffee alone on the beach before sunrise

Riding my bike through quiet streets at the shore

Reclining in the anti-gravity lounge chair out back, looking at the sky through my tree

Sitting on the dock at the lake

Hearing Into the Mystic

Playing solitaire

The space I'm in after a cleansing cry

Being mindful

Looking up to realize I'm one of the last people left on the beach

A nice cuppa honey lavender tea

Realization

Washing dishes

Candles burning 

Tiny Buddhas

An extra 15 minutes in bed

Hugging someone I love

Letting go

Letting myself feel things deep down into my bones

A quiet house

Piling up on the couch with my dogs, a quilt, and a book

Deep breaths

Lavender essential oil

Walks in the woods

I could use some peace after this week. 

What are some things that make you feel peaceful?

This post is a part of the back to blogging challenge on Alyssa's blog. 
To read more like this or write some like this:

TWTW - the one with the girls at the lake

I certainly like to share experiences and go out and do things with my friends...but nothing quite beats just bumming around and being with them, and that's what I did this weekend. We all play so many roles in life, and it's a lovely respite to bum around with your girlfriends and just be solely who you are. Girls weekend at the lake had no outings, no makeup...

Some sun, some showers, some awesome skies, dinner a la Jack and a new Debbie Rae Designs bracelet that I commissioned. And a few early mornings as Gus got up at 4:30. That's a.m.

Plenty of peace, reading, and just being. I really needed that after last week's news. 

Of course there was lots of laughing, eating, napping,and poop talk. I mean, we are people who talk about poop and kill ourselves laughing over it. 

Floating, too, naturally...we were at the lake. And last but not least, there was a large, unwieldy swan named Tabitha.

Weekly food prep

Breakfast is breakfast burritos from the freezer. Snacks are bell peppers, celery with hummus, and peaches. Lunches are Wawa salads. Dinners are tomato sandwiches with cucumbers on the side, and pork loin with potato salad and green beans. I also made a vat of iced coffee. Tomatoes, blueberries, celery, red potatoes, and green onions are all from a Farmers' Market on Sunday. Holler. 

As always thanks to Lori for being an awesome hostess. 

And to my girls for just being fucking awesome. 

Tomorrow: favorite day! Show Us Your Books with Jana and me. 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

Cause down the shore everything's alright...

If I could live anywhere, I'd live at the Jersey shore - not the fist pumping Jersey Shore shore - but Strathmere, Cape May, Ocean City? I'd live there in a second. I grew up going to Ocean City, and through the years migrated to other shores: Sea Isle, North Wildwood, Cape May, Strathmere. Some of my best memories were made down the shore, and not to be new agey, but I feel very much myself there. MFD feels the same way, which is why we chose to get married down there.

The shore is laid back, easy, no fuss. Throw some clothes in a bag and go. I pack my beach bag with a big hat, long sleeves for when the wind turns between 3 - 4 p.m., sunblock, two books, crosswords, twizzlers, and plums or nectarines, and I'm content to be at the beach all day.

I like it when it's sunny or overcast. I like the beach in the spring, fall, winter. I like it when it's raining.

I love to travel to places I've never been, but when it comes right down to it, I'd choose the shore over any other destination. Every time I go down, I'm reminded of so many great times shared with people I adore. Since I'm heading down this weekend, here's a little through the years kaleidoscope.

The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.  

~Isak Dinesen

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

- e.e. cummings

hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky 

let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic...

~Van Morrison

A beach was a fine place to come to terms with all the cycles of the universe. 

~Pat Conroy, Beach Music

To me there has never been anything more evocative of 

summer and wildness and bittersweet joy than a sea wind. 

Anne Rivers Siddons, Outer Banks

In still moments by the sea life seems large-drawn and simple. 

It is there we can see into ourselves.

~Rolf Edberg

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is 

the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, 

that is the interior of the soul. 

~Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, 

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, 

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, 

Let me forget about today until tomorrow. 

― Bob Dylan

The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. 

It defies all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. 

No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can't.

~Christopher Paolini, Eragon

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

-- T. S. Eliot

We'll be making more shore memories this weekend with Amanda and Frank.

It's nice to have something to look forward to in the middle of the week, no?

Wishing you all a stellar Wednesday,