Sunrise

This picture is taken in Cayucos Beach, a little coastal town in California near San Luis Obispo, where we have rented a house right on the beach since I was about ten. The sunrises are spectacular (when the fog doesn't mar it's beauty), the sunsets glorious, and the family time we get to spend together rich and plentiful.
When I was young, I took my family time for granted. Now, I know what I had is a rare gift. Not everyone has a family that actually enjoys gathering in a house where they can't help but get in each others ways, where the grandparents are involved and truly love you, and your aunts and uncles and cousins are fun to be around.
It is of extreme importance to me now to make time for my family to get away together and enjoy each others company in a place other than our house, because it was something that was a priority to my dad's side of the family. I am thankful for the getaways we had growing up!
Grandpa Bob always adored the beach, so that was usually the backdrop for many vacations we took as a family. He took me on my first low tide explorations, discovering crabs, sand dollars, sea anemones, and starfish in every vivid color. He'd take them out of the sandy water like treasures from a treasure chest and crouch down so that we could touch them in his hand. It was as if he was seeing them for the first time too, through our virginal eyes, and everything was so wonderful and new!
My dad also played a huge part in my passion for sojourning. He took us to the most amazing, gorgeous places to camp as we were growing up. The Redwoods, Big Sur, and Yosemite to hike all around the forestry terrain. We drank from cool fresh streams, we set up tents together, and heard bears rummaging in the middle of the night in our campsite, saw snakes and different types of woodland creatures, smelled the different scents of the land, musky and damp in the forest with brilliant ferns and mosses, we discovered waterfalls together and wildflowers and beauty.
He too loved seeing things through our childish eyes, all of the things he'd seen before, now seeing them amaze and awe us kids to silence or excitement.
I want that for my kids too! I want them to discover the beauty this earth we live on has to offer, all of God's intricate masterpieces in nature, all of the feelings seeing something fresh stir up within a child, and in me.
Looking back, I don't recall my dad having a ton of money to squander away on these excursions, he (being the terrific financier that he is) most likely saved up for these trips for months before we'd go, so that we could have all the fun we wanted when on them. I don't want to waste time saying,"When we have the money, we'll do this, or that" I want to seize the day and forage ahead in unexplored land (at least unexplored by me, not man, haha, I am not that crazy) and I want to give my kids the gift of seeing the many things this world has to offer in the form of beauty.
This is my prayer today.