INSPIRATION FROM MY BEACH CHAIR

… AND INSPIRATION FROM OLD FRIENDS

Sitting in my beach chair is the BEST inspiration! I spend a few days at the beach each summer with my friend Kim . It’s hard to believe, but we’ve been going to the same beach for 22 years, where her parents have a home. In the early years, we brought five kids under the age of five and, later on, sulky teenagers who carried our multitude of beach supplies instead of the other way around. Later on, our adult children rotated in and out.

This little trip is a beautiful tradition that renews and reconnects me to my dear friend. Every year we cook (and eat) lots of fresh seafood… clams, oysters, tuna, shrimp, her famous crabcakes… In addition to eating and cooking, we talk, plan, write, read, nap on the beach, and come up with lots of inspiration from our beach chairs.

Kim is fun-loving, free-spirited, and a spiritual, deep-thinker. So she often brings a motivational or inspiring non-fiction book I want to read. Her books spark conversations that inspire me, renew my creativity, and reminds me to always keep growing. She teaches yoga, and these beautiful words are from her website:

‘I’ve always loved to be at the beach – sand, water, sun, moon, laughter, lightness, freedom – surrounded by family and friends. Everything comes alive in and around me at the beach! And when I’m on my mat, the same thing happens; I feel alive and free, ready to love and be loved!’

Beach Chair Inspirations.

Here are our ‘beach chair inspirations’ to renew your creativity in the summer months. Most of them hers, a couple of mine (like the beer).

• Go with the flow. Sometimes left, sometimes right, slow or strong, but remember to rest.
• Feel the earth beneath you. Really feel it. Or preferably the sand. Walk on the beach, look around and take it all in.
• If you can’t dance in the rain, then dance (badly) at a beach bar to nineties music.
• Walk to the end of the pier.
• Take time to visit friends, especially ones you don’t’ see often. It’s good for your soul.
• Order the shrimp burger…. with hush puppies.
• Float. Quit trying so hard to swim against the current. Just float.
• Summer is a time to embrace the warm air, sunshine, and fireworks. Let it remind you of a simpler time.
• Go with the waves of life. You can’t control them; you just have to ride them out. They ebb and flow and are ever-changing like the sand.
• Go fishing. It teaches patience.
• Drink a salty margarita. Or a beer. Preferably with a lime.
• Let the water wash over, cleanse, and renew your body.
• Get inspiration while in your beach chair. Read the same inspirational book every summer. More on that in my next post…..
• Smell the salty air. Breathe it in. Just breathe.

Want to stay inspired? Read about creative rituals. Or see the art that was inspired by the beach.