8 Days a Week

My sister lives right near the beach in Florida.  But she rarely goes there. It's such a hassle...swimsuit, grooming for the swimsuit, sunblock, fried chicken (um, yes, I discovered on my trip there that is strictly necessary), beach chair, water bottle, sunglasses, a good book, a place to hide your cell phone and keys, a blanket that doesn't bring back half the beach in sand....well, you get the picture.

But it's the beach.
It's good for your soul.
You feel so much better.
You are never sorry you went to the beach (...unless you forget sunscreen, I guess)

It's a little bit like married sex.

We people can be so dumb sometimes. We are always substituting the "good enough" for the great.  There are these wonderful, healthy options presented to us and we choose to sit on the couch and watch mindless tv instead.  Fresh, healthy food?  No thanks, I'll take a pizza delivered to my door instead.  Real live interaction with a human being that I love? No thanks, I'll take shallow interactions with people I barely like on Facebook, please.

So one day in church, I had this thought....

"We should 'go to the beach.'  Every day. For a week."

I went home from church and told my husband. And he said, "Ok."

So we did.

I thought it would require being super creative. Like fixing a fancy dinner. But it didn't.  You don't need recipe cards to make your favorite dinner.

When you know the plan, you get over if you feel like it or not.  Or if you feel pretty.  You slap on the sunscreen and get in the water and just enjoy the fact that you are at the beach!  It's awesome at the beach.  And HE gets over scheming about trying to "go to the beach."

He's not playing offense. You aren't playing defense. You are just having fun.

There are totally legit times to avoid the beach. Hurricane season for instance. Newborn baby. I'm mixing my metaphors, but you know what I'm saying. Maybe somebody in the relationship is just not well enough to go to the beach. But I'm talking about two healthy people with a typical relationship.  We should all make time and effort to the go the beach as often as possible.  We all make excuses for not going.  We get too busy. We're too tired. My legs look fat in my swimsuit. We can't find the beach chairs.  (Wait, is that a metaphor for something?)

I'm just saying...why not go to the beach more often?  It's right there. It's a big, beautiful ocean. And every time you go there, don't you think, "Dang. We should do this more often."