Life on Emerald Isle

The beach is my happy place.

The beach in the photo in particular, brings me lots of peace and joy.

Emeral Isle, NC was a new spot to me and little family of four back in July of 2019 when we visited it for the first time and we all fell in love. We’d been to Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head Island, several beaches in Florida, but they were all so commercialized and crowded and not serene enough. Emerald Isle though? It was the opposite of those places and filled a beach-sized hole in my mental/emotional health space that I didn’t even know existed. My husband and I declared on that trip that we were gonna become “those people” and vacation at the same spot every year for years to come.

And then a global pandemic hit.

And then summer of 2022 hit with lots of health issues for my husband. So we didn’t get back to the Isle til this year. And it did not disappoint.

Amidst what was probably one of the lowest points of my entire life mentally and emotionally, I was able to sink my feet into the sand and lose myself in the waves and vastness of the ocean. I was grounded, I was reminded how small I was (as were my woes), and I hit the reset button.

I’m thankful for the means to be able to take a vacation, a time away from the mundane of everyday life, a chance to just be.

I’m thankful for the flexibility of my work to be able to take time off of being on call for births or serving postpartum families to be with my family. My people.

And I’m thankful for the ocean and the sand and how sunsets and sunrises seem more magical whenever I’m not seeing them from home.

I’m thankful. And I miss it. And I’m ready to go back.