Week #357 – Be Still!
Greetings Happyness Tribe — and Happy Friday!
This past Wednesday, I returned to Los Angeles from a weird and intense trip back home to the Jersey Shore. After MONTHS of not traveling anywhere, I knew from the minute we couldn’t get an Uber to the airport on a Monday morning that we were in for a rough week!
My trip, as always this time of year, was centered around an annual concert in Ocean Grove’s Great Auditorium — which is usually one of the single busiest weeks of the summer (and one of the hottest!).
Between singing in the concert and grabbing slices of time with family — there normally isn’t much time to schedule other activities, visits, or downtime.
This time though, due to some extreme and bizarre weather, almost everyone canceled on us!
Which meant I had a little more unstructured time than I planned!
And as I sat spinning in my guest unit, scrolling through my phone, and feeling a little more isolated and uneasy than when I am 3,000 miles away…I remembered one of my most favorite past times in Ocean Grove!
Porch-Hopping!
Porch-hopping is a special kind of visiting…no planning, no deadlines, no expectations. You simply make yourself available and see who passes by! It’s not a date for an entire day or evening…it’s grab-and-go. Take what you can. Just a few precious moments of eternal NOW.
And you learn to make it count!
Summers move pretty fast in Ocean Grove! And after five years in Southern California, where there’s always another beautiful day, I could really feel the pressure to “make something” of my visit.
But in the absence of running here and running there, I was left with only one option:
To be still.
I took a walk down the street. And truth was, I didn’t get a few houses before I was waved down and invited up the walk for a chat! And then another. And then another. All without texting, calling, or coordinating!
Strange how sometimes the fastest way to get where you want to go…is to slow down!
Your Happyness Challenge for the Week Ahead: Be Still! Whether you have a porch, deck, patio, balcony, or tailgate — pull up a chair, take a load off, sit a spell, have a chat, visit a bit, or rock a while! Watch the traffic pass, cars park, people walk by, critters hard at work, nature doing her thing, or just observe the world moving about while you sit still. Invite someone to join you. Share a glass of something cold, have a conversation, meet a neighbor, visit with friends, or get to know just a little bit more about your very own family.
Make porch time a priority this week!
Spread Happyness — tell me, what’s your favorite place for a nice long sit?
7/16/21 by Grace Church
© Grace Church
grace@spreadhappyness.com