Seek: By the Ocean
“You rule the raging of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.”
Psalm 89:9 ESV
Depoe Bay, OR
The ocean is my happy place. No matter how hectic life gets, there is just something about staring out over the water and watching the waves that just instantly calms my soul. I’m blessed to live less than 90 minutes from the Pacific Ocean, so my family makes frequent day trips, weekend trips, and the occasional longer stretch at the beach. Another blessing I have is that my full time job in Corporate Finance is fully remote. This means that often in the summer we will make our way our to our favorite spots at the beach and I can work right from my camper with a full view of the ocean.
It’s amazing the shift I can feel in my attitude and mindset when I’m in this place I’ve identified as calming and soothing. Big deadline looming? It’ll be fine, I’m at the beach! Back to back video calls all day? No big, at least I can catch the sunset on the beach when I’m done. But as I write this it’s currently the end of March, not exactly beach weather. Don’t get me wrong, we will often head to the beach no matter the weather, but during the school year the trips are less frequent and I have been known to catch myself daydreaming of those beach days in my future.
But why do I have to wait until I’m at the beach to find peace? God created this big huge thing way bigger than me and for some reason feeling small brings new perspective. Is there some magic or “something in the water” that improves my mood? No…it’s a choice I’ve made, an association between the cool breeze and crashing waves and joy. Maybe your happy place isn’t the ocean, but I’d venture to guess you’ve got one that you’re thinking of. Can’t we just bottle up that happy place feeling next time we visit and bring it home? Not really, but I believe we can do even better.
What if we made the choice to seek peace and joy in our current surroundings? I’m fully aware that the chaos around you might look a little like mine with piles of laundry or noisy children or to-do lists a mile long. But just humor me…find a space in your home and fill it with things that remind you of your happy place. It can be just a cozy chair in a corner and on the end table you put a candle that smells like the flowers at your favorite garden or where you hang a photo of a favorite memory. Go online and order that special snack you always have when you’re there (salt water taffy, maple candy, you know the type I’m talking about) and keep it on hand.
You might not get the same peaceful feeling as you do from your true happy place at first, but the more you visit your little happy corner and the more you seek that feeling you have, it will come. It’s so easy to live life just looking forward to that next vacation or that next trip or that next big event. But in between, I challenge you to find moments of joy and peace every day. It doesn’t have to be a whole day or even a few hours, evey five minutes of intentionality in your happy corner can make all the difference. Just don’t accept the notion that you can only find those moments at your happy place. God has given you joy and peace, but they are not conditional on your current longitude and latitude.
May you Seek + Sojourn more,
Teddi Jo
