Clear Aqua Water!!!

I once heard that the definition of summer is time spent doing nothing. I think what was was meant by that comment was, time with nothing on your schedule so that you can do whatever you want to do. I hope you are getting to do exactly what you want to do. Read a good book, spend time with friends and family at a slower pace, learn something new.

I have been so lucky to take time off and spend time in the Bahamas sailing, snorkeling, trying to learn golf, celebrating my husband‘s birthday with new & old friends and spending quality time with friends and family. Everyone keeps asking me if I have painted while in the Bahamas. No. No, I am too busy doing summer, doing things that I don’t get to do in Dallas. After saying no I haven’t painted so many times, I wondered why. Why have I not painted?

A dear friend sent a podcast to me about the 7 types of rest (Gwyneth Paltrow and Suanda Dalton-Smith), specifically for creative rest. Just like a garden, the soil needs rest before planting the next crop. For creative rest, one needs to stop doing and just receive/observe the beauty around them. And that is just what I have been doing. Observing and taking in the natural beauty around me. The beauty of the sea life, the tide coming in and out and the changes that brings. I’ve been told that sometimes a shark comes in with high tide to catch some fish. The sun changing throughout the day, the morning sun casting light shades of yellow and maybe pink, the strong shadows of palms on the ground from the overhead sun, and then, this sunset! That’s when the real show begins!

My biggest decision of the day is how am I going to maybe catch a glimpse of a sea turtle or stingray. By sailboat, paddleboard, kayak? For the stingrays, its better to take a sailboat because they hang out in a section of the beach far from me where there is a lot of dark sea grass. If I’m lucky enough to see one or two, I can maybe keep up with them on a sailboat when the wind is good. In the evening, I can maybe be lucky enough to see a stingray by paddleboard in this cove. As for the turtles, they literally are clueless. You will see one or two with their heads above water swimming around and if you make a sound, you will startle them and they will jump in immediately dunk underwater. They have no idea that you’re even there watching them. In the mornings, when it is calm, I can look over my deck and see colorful fish. Sometimes as big as 3 feet long. You can see turtles like ducks in a pond.

So no, I haven’t had a chance to paint. I’ve been experiencing something beyond my daily life in Dallas. Oh summer, don’t end!

With one more month left of summer, I hope you get to spend your time doing whatever you want to do. My adventure at the beach is over, but, I am still going to try to get in a book and whatever else makes it feel like summer. Let me know what you summer has been, I would love to hear!!!