Just Be. Happy.

I know my blog is usually funny (or so I imagine)but on occasion I’ve been known to say something worth while (again.... si I imagine) – I will attempt worthwhiledness now…

I was in Florida last year and it was a particularly trying time in my life. I had two very small children and was having a hard time with – well many aspects of my life. I am generally upbeat and positive but – life has a way of getting to all of us sometimes…I woke up at 4:45 one morning and couldn’t sleep. The waves gently crashing on the beach seemed to beckon to me so I got up and pulled on a t shirt and some shorts and snuck out to get a coffee and have a stroll. I found a sea turtles nest her tracks still untouched by peoples thoughtless walking and beneath the sand all nice and snug – her hundreds of sleeping babies completely unaware of the peril that lay in the journey ahead of them.

I think that I may have been searching for some great moment of clarity or something – but didn’t really expect to find it. I sat down upon a sand dune with my coffee and watched the sun come up.

This stretch of beach was private and very quiet especially at that time of day. There was one old man walking up and down with a metal detector searching for his treasure. He looked like leather and had a puff of cotton for hair. Other than that I was totally alone and very down. I looked up at the horizon and said aloud – “Why can’t I just be happy? I just can’t figure it out.” I sat and reflected for a time and was about to go back to the beach house when a wiry old black man wandered down the beach. He looked like the history of the world was etched in his face. He stopped and smiled at me and I returned his smile. Then he said, “How are you today?” and I replied “Just fine thank you – and yourself?”. “Always fine always fine.” Then he said, “My, you are pretty. Why you sitting there all by your lonesome?”. I just smiled and said, “Thank you. You are very kind. Just doing some thinking”. Then he sort of bowed to me, grinned and started to walk away. When he was nearly out of hearing he turned and smiled that infectious smile and said, “Don’t think so much. Just be. Happy.”

Tears instantly sprang to my eyes. Then I looked back out to the ocean and thought how beautiful the world can be sometimes.

I don’t know what my system of beliefs is or isn’t – I am always learning new things…. But I think that was the closest to ever having a one on one conversation with the big man himself.