Happy Place

“Now and then it is good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy”  – Guillaume Apollinare

Hirtle’s Beach

If you challenge me to state my “happy place” I won’t do it.  It’s not because I’m being difficult, or because I am unhappy.  But rather because I have found happiness in so many “places” I couldn’t possibly pin down just one.  I am happy in all the usual places like in my home especially (like this weekend) when my kids are around or in my garden, or touring on my bicycle.  I have found great happiness in the most unlikely places such as stuck in traffic with a good friend, or in a hospital (specifically in a delivery room when my sons were born).  So, I think happiness has little to do with place.

This weekend our boys (plus one girlfriend) and a group of our friends gathered here at our place to help us harvest our grapes.  That generosity made me happy.  Seeing those grapes off to the winery, taking all the fretting and worrying with them, made me very happy indeed.

Today, with all that work behind us, and weather feeling more like summer than mid autumn, Son #1 and I drove to his favourite beach, just to look at the water.  It’s only 10 minutes from home. This boy has just graduated from university and is in the process of sorting out the next steps in his journey – trying so hard to get it just right.

We are lucky to live in a place that is literally surrounded by beaches. But this one.  This beautiful place with more than three kilometres of sand facing the North Atlantic is a pretty special spot.

For a moment this afternoon, standing there together, with our feet in the sand and the sun on our faces, drinking in the gentle surf and the breeze …… well, that was a lovely moment of happiness.

Happy Place – weekly photo challenge