Finding Quiet in the Chaos

The Outer Banks is a place that by its very nature, begs you to find a solitary spot and curl up in a chaise or on a porch swing and just be quiet for a while.   To read, to write, to think, to pray… the reason for sitting there alone in the sun is merely for  solitude itself, not the action that compelled you there.

It is a place where everyone helps to clean up after dinner, where everyone takes turns taking out the trash and where household chores become joys for being a part of the greater group.   It is a place for long walks in pairs and  trios on the sand, for big sun hats and suntan lotion, for blankets spread out in the afternoon to lounge on with good bottles of wine and hunks of cheese.   It’s a place where the baby takes a nap every day (!), where the dog finally runs as much as he should, where Mommy and Daddy remember they are Kristjana and Casey.   It’s grandparents and playtime, bunkbeds made into forts and an old Weber grill just waiting for the next round of burgers.

This is our fifth day here.   The day stretches out before us with endless possibilities, limited responsibilities and no To Do lists in sight.   This line of lapstops on the breakfast table allows the execs and MBAs among us to check in and then check right back out again and return to the spot in the sunshine.     Gramma has Kenny on a stroll, Dave and Sonila (who ended up coming back merely an hour after I wrote that they had left… it’s hard to leave this place!) are playing tennis, George and Casey are reading, one in the sun, one on the couch, and I am going to finish writing and find that empty porch swing.   Dudley is curled at Casey’s feet, vaguely aware that his buddy Maggie is gone, and strangely subdued.

This is the kind of place that proves that we all need time away, to find quiet in the midst of the chaos of life, and to remember how much fun this life really is.