text: Baby Love Slings: January 2012
  It's not that I don't love Chicago. I really do. I love being in the city. I love the lake and the museums. I love living in the suburbs with all the conveniences and fun things to do. I love the schools my boys go to, I love our new church, I love my job and living so close to all these things. I even love the snow. Really. It is so beautiful when falling and when it rests on the bare tree branches to create a beautiful wintry scene. I love sledding and snowmen and all that winter fun. I really do love living in Chicago.
  I come to Florida and I step foot on the beach. I smell the ocean and hear the waves. I see the dunes and the sea grass waving in the breeze. There is just simply nothing like it. At the risk of sounding overly cheesy or cliche', it is like being at the ocean just sweeps through my soul taking away my stress and anxiety or discontent and leaves me feeling clear and calm and like I am where I am supposed to be. It is soul-cleansing for me and restorative in ways that nothing else can be.
  It is at the ocean that my soul finds rest. That my mind is at ease. That I can calm my thoughts and worries and hear Jesus whisper words of peace and love and confidence.
  Part of it probably is just the getting away. Here we are away from most of our to-do's and places to be and all of that. But that too is good. SO very good.
  I'm so thankful for these times I have with my boys on the beach. I want them to have the same love for this place that I do, to feel it permeate their little souls too. I can already see that happening and that too is therapy for this beach mama's soul.