© Gerry Burns
The holidays make me a little crazy. So when my husband first suggested the family join him on a business trip to Florida in December, I told him he was a kook. Who would get the tree? Who would cross items off the shopping list? Who would write the holiday letter and select a photo for the card and print the cards and buy the stamps and address the envelopes? Who would order the lamb, prepare the sweet potato biscuits, and bake the cookies? Who would wrap the gifts and layer them around the tree? Who? Who? Who?
The answer, of course, was that no one would do these things if we went away. And it would be okay.
Now we are back from our surprise winter trip, and my husband was right. None of those things are done yet … and it will be okay.
What’s more, I came home with intense feelings of gladness, thanks to a few days in the Everglades. I’d now like to give everyone I know—and everyone I don’t know, too—the gift of a day kayaking through the swamps of the Big Cypress National Preserve. Our journey through red mangrove tunnels (pictured above) was one of the most peaceful and joyful experiences of my life. Oh, how I wish I could wrap that up and put it under the tree.
(Not my tree, of course, because I don’t have one yet. But I would put it under your holiday tree if I could!)