The Patio

My inspiration for this blog is the desire to catalogue my experiences, share them with others, and use them as a reminder to myself of how to live my life. I think it is too easy in this world to float through life, a day at a time, an hour at a time, and never leave the surface of the each moment. There is so much life beyond the surface, if you just take the dive below the whitecaps and waves.

For example, Barrett and I just moved to Miami. We have a fantastic high-rise apartment on the 17th floor in the heart of downtown. We have discovered the joy of eating meals on the patio overlooking the hustle and bustle of a big city. We sit there with the cars, homeless, and metro rail speeding by below while we eat our spaghetti or sandwiches. I take a break in between bites and soak up the sounds, the energy, and the love on that patio. There will be many times during my life when I look back on these patio moments and my heart will beam. Stressful times, scary times, lonely times, all when I feel as though life is too hard. But those patio moments remind me that I have a partner in life. He is in love with me and he truly enjoys just sitting on the patio, looking at the ocean, with me by his side. No distractions. Just us. These moments form the foundation of a marriage. It's not wedding vows, white dresses, signing paperwork, or moving in together. It's little moments like these that will get us through the inevitable hard times to come.

That, for me, is living the depth of the moment. It could have just been a turkey sandwich on the patio in between unpacking suitcases. But it wasn't. It was so much more than that. So much deeper than that.