The beauty of feeling small.

My family and I went down to Florida, a place called Anastasia Island near one of our favorite towns called St. Augustine, and it delivered in every way (as it always does). The looks of awe and wonder on our kid’s faces at the Alligator Farm, their sense of adventure and curiosity to see what’s next at Sea World, and the quick glances over to Wifey while sitting down for food and drinks as we exchange smiles that seem to say everything that needs to be said. Needless to say, vacation was a success.

I’m left to wonder what makes these times so special. Almost painfully so. Is it our sense of gratitude that allows the smallest of things to feel so perfect? Is it our financial situation that allows us to go without any sense of hesitation or subconscious concern? Of course it’s a combination of all of the above but I find it easier to control and more fun to focus on the former rather than the latter. Financials, as we’ve all seen or experienced, can sometimes ebb and flow regardless of effort. Our mindset and perspective, in my opinion, can continue to improve with a concerted effort. So it’s fair to take some credit for our ability to acknowledge the moments sitting by the pool, walking in the woods, or laughing uncontrollably in bed at night because we’re all overtired and running on fumes, that make our lives seem so frighteningly perfect.

These miracle-moments, as I call them, happen every day. You can choose to see them or not, the choice is yours, and the difference they make is everything. Maybe it’s the mindset of being on vacation that makes one a bit more tuned in to the right frequency and susceptible to witnessing these miracle-moments. We’re almost expecting to find them when we’re away and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The question worth sitting with is how can we adopt this sensitivity and integrate it into our everyday lives. Perhaps we need to build better habits of putting the phone down, embracing mindfulness in a way that allows us to share in the moments of curiosity with our kids, and be generally more open to experiencing these simple moments. It’s easy to be dialed in on vacation or at momentous occasions. Can we do it consistently when sitting down for legos or homework? Playing outside in the grass or going for a walk? It’s when we feel we can justify some scrolling and swiping that we need to be most vigilant.

At one moment on vacation, with Julissa and Juliana down by the pool (going on their 8th hour I think?), little man zonked out in bed, and some time to kill, I walked out onto the balcony to look towards the waves crashing into the aged wooden pier. It was cluttered with fishermen, their coolers sitting next to them, and families going out to experience the view from the far end.

Looking beyond this pier, I started to feel the infinite vastness of the ocean. The waves endlessly crashing, the horizon presenting itself without a beginning or end, and the realization that it’s been around long before and will be around long after all of us.

As I think about why I’m drawn to such things, the feelings of smallness and triviality they invoke, and the ability to be quickly reminded of how temporary this life really is…I think I was given some answers in that moment.

While we all strive to make outsized, positive impacts on this world — we inevitably fade back to black. Nothingness. This can be as daunting or freeing if you let it.

For me personally, this smallness I alluded to is liberating. We apply and label things as meaningful, good, bad, etc. but in the end…it comes and goes. Few things are ever as important as we make them out to be. Few things are as good or as bad as well. In the end, much of the experience of life is contrived in our minds long before it’s directly experienced. Perhaps we should stop, accept that much of life is trivial, and realize the best way to honor our time here is by being present enough to witness the miracle-moments more often?

There’s an ever-expanding reality around us with a complexity that continues to pile on, and life seems to be more and more difficult by the moment. A bit of reductionism, whether induced by nature or personal efforts, can be a powerful elixir to this complication. The ability to disengage, disconnect, and reduce with the hopes of enabling mindfulness in a meaningful way.

The more intentional and mindful we are the purer our experiences of miracle-moments. If there’s anything worth striving for — it’s seeking these out.

We should not be so afraid to use our temporaneous nature as a motivator of sorts. A driving force for us to experience life head on and to embrace every moment.

This is what the ocean does for me.

What’s your ocean?