A Switzerland Moment

I've had those moments. Those moments where you look at the people who care for and love you, the nature that welcomes you into its world with open arms, the summer breeze that blows in off the ocean right as the sun sets. I've been lucky enough to travel and to feed my constant craving for the new. I am incessantly chasing after the next adventure or chapter of my life-- so much so that I often don't appreciate what I've seen or felt until after the moment has passed.

There's something to be said for traveling. Experiencing a new place with new people is one of the only things in this world that reminds us of just how lucky we are to be alive. 

That aspect of travel is something that we love, it's the reason we keep embarking on new adventures, and yet, you'd think by now we would have learned to make it a part of our daily lives. I live in a beautiful place, one of the greenest states in America. I am so blessed for having grown up here, and I always forget just how gorgeous it is until I've climbed up a mountain and can look down on just what an amazing place it is. It's something that goes beyond the scenery though, it's the people too. But get this, I spend the majority of my days wishing I could be somewhere else.

Isn't that sad? I don't blame myself too much for it. If there's one thing I've noticed in people it's the unwavering feeling that there's always something better out there. But I think we could all benefit from acting like where we are, even if it's where we don't want to be, is some place worth loving.

I remember waking up in Switzerland this past summer. We'd stayed in a little ski lodge outside of Lucerne, nestled right in the Swiss Alps. The windows didn't have screens, you could push them right open and the crisp mountain air would fill the room. And the view out my window is one that has been engraved in my mind since that first glance. It was one of those moments that pictures couldn't do justice. It wasn't the unbelievable beauty of the mountain towering over me that made it so special, it was how looking at that mountain made me feel. I remember thinking how awesome it was that some random little place in Switzerland could hold so much natural beauty, and I've been to a lot of tropical locations, but still I've never seen water as blue as that of Lake Lucerne.

When I consciously took a moment to acknowledge the beauty surrounding me, to acknowledge how lucky I was to be there, in that moment, I felt so extremely happy to be alive. A lot of us experience this when we travel, and I'm sure some of it is the excitement that comes with travel. But I suspect there's just as much beauty surrounding me now as there was when I was in Switzerland. Between work and school and everyday normal life, it must just be something I have to look a little harder for. But it must be there.

This week I promised myself that I would take a chance every day to recognize why I'm thankful to be where I am today. Every time I've truly felt that this life is too good to be true I've been in the presence of nature. Or with my family out to dinner. Or with my friends on a summer night, huddled around the campfire, laughing and reminiscing beneath a starry sky.

All the things that surround us are so easily overlooked, but they're the things that make us who we are. The things we appreciate define us as humans. What if we appreciated every single little moment that passed us by to its full effect? What if every moment were like that moment in Switzerland?

Granted, not every day will be great. But there's beauty in that. It's the bad moments that make even the smallest good moments seem great. Focus on the good moments, focus on what surrounds you. Make one good moment a day your own Switzerland moment, and I guarantee you'll be happier for it.

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Have a great Monday!

xoxo