The 3 Most Precious Resources of Life

If I were to name the three most precious resources of life,
I should say books, friends, and Nature; and the greatest of these,
at least the most constant and always at hand, is nature.

Nature we have always have with us,
an inexhaustible storehouse of that which moves the heart,
appeals to the mind, and fires the imagination—
health to the body, a stimulus to the intellect, and joy to the soul.

To the scientist Nature is a storehouse of facts, laws, processes;

to the artist she is a storehouse of pictures;

to the poet she is a storehouse of images, fancies,
a source of inspiration;

to the moralist she is a storehouse of precepts and parables;

to all she may be a source of knowledge and joy.

-John Burroughs, The Art of Seeing Things

I’m spending my days mining the storehouse.

It’s funny how no matter how late I stay up here, I’m up with the birds morning. Something about the quality of the new light so close to the horizon demands that you rub the sleep from your eyes to witness it, and I have never, ever walked the beach close to sunrise and not seen something worth witnessing. It’s the ultimate creation of white space in which to highlight and experience wonder.

Only three weeks remain of the kids’ summer vacation; Jake’s last summer as a child and the first beach week in years and years that I wasn’t working while trying not to disappoint my family.

Savoring every moment.