Stan and I were looking forward to Spring Break... since Winter Break!

There are just some years where you really need to get out town, even for a few nights and there is nothing better for a tight budget than a camping trip. We both love the feeling of disconnecting, doing nothing all day, reading, sitting by the campfire, and seeing the stars. Since I moved from Moses Lake 12 years ago, I don't get to see a lot of starry skies and when I go camping I am reminded of that very important connection to the big skies we live under. Starry skies and oceans do that for me. Remind me of the true size of my problems and that no matter what, there is a ton of beauty around me, no matter what is going on in my personal world.

The impersonal nature of Nature does wonders for me. I need those close intimate relationships, those people who have known me for years, who know what the tones in my voice mean, how to read every look on my face, how to comfort me with just the right words, or to know the times when nothing can really be said to fix things, the people who make me laugh, the ones who stayed with me though they are miles away, the ones who did not disappear when things got tough or when I got lost in this big and confusing world we live in. There are people who chose to stay through the changes, who did not disengage. There are those who did not judge. I need all these people. But there is something else I need too. That impersonal beauty that is big, unstoppable, and neverending. I need my personal relationships to remind me that I am important and to empower me with love. Yet I need that nonpersonal and infinite backdrop of nature to remind me that my problems are not important and that my power is limited.

For that, I go camping...

We drove a day and a half, to something like 5 different sites hoping to camp on the beach. The beach was beautiful, the campsites, well not so much!

Mustard Blooming!

Would ya look at that geology?

Ended up in Los Padres National Forest. Oak tree country (we could have just camped in our back yard for that, but that would not have been as fun!)

Freemont campsite... Not many campers, good for us! Ceanothus in bloom, we have a lot of blue where we live, but not the white. Very pretty!

We were about 20 minutes North of Santa Barbara so we drove down twice for food runs. Here is the view as you drop down over the pass...

No words needed...

March is a magical month. This weekend is my Mom's birthday and I celebrate her existance with every cell in my body! This weekend my husband and I celebrate our 2 year anniversary. Our life is not easy right now for many reasons. Infertility is a heartbreak and I hope that we will get our miracle soon. My Mom has been through the wringer this year but she seems to be feeling a little better and for that I am grateful beyond belief. My sister Tammy is struggling too but she seems just a little happier than she did when she moved here and I am grateful for that. That brings me to my point... March is a magical month.

If there is one thing I have learned in this life it is that gratitude and appreciation are the keys to everything in this life. I just posted this in my friends blog because she made an entire post about gratitude. I decided that was something worth writing (or typing) about. I am grateful. Grateful for so much and so many. Despite all our hardships this year, we have not been alone, and we have not been without.

It is easy to let anger, frustration, and sadness overwhelm, and sometimes I let it.

But I do not want to be that person. I want to be the kind of person, the kind of friend, wife, mother, daughter, sister, who believes in the bigger picture. I want to hold on to the idea that things work out, I want to believe that life is good. I want to be reliable and strong, someone that can be counted on in a storm. I don't want to hide out in fear, I don't want to resort to worrying more about myself than my friends and family. Gratitude lets me believe in serving others, appreciation reminds me that there is ALWAYS enough, if I remember what is most important.

Gratitude and appreciation are the best foundation for relationships, for life. March is a month of birthdays, anniversaries, and last but not least: SPRING! Spring brings in everything new, it ushers in our hopes, our dreams, and reminds us that the magic of life is in all the little things... it's in the birds and the bees and all the flowers blooming; it's pulling out the deck chairs and sitting under the oak tree; it's about cleaning out the old; it's about letting ourselves change; letting ourselves be more; it's about loving all the intangible reasons that life is worth celebrating.