My Everythings

At the last minute, a neighboring beach town was selected as the destination for our anniversary celebration.

Beautiful Ocean Springs.

But it was not our first choice.

Of course it wasn’t.

Originally, we had booked something much grander.

An overseas trip.

A big adventure.

A proper way to mark a milestone.

But we canceled because of anticipated problems.

Anticipated problems.

Problems that never came to pass.

Whatever.

Yes, I was annoyed with myself.

Still am.

So, we rented a beautiful house on the beach, close enough for our son and his girlfriend to join us for a long weekend.

And it was perfection.

A lovely home.

A private beach.

A long pier stretching over the water.

In general, I love to cook,

But because I was in celebration mode,

And maybe a little salty about my unnecessarily canceled trip,

we ate every meal in wonderful restaurants.

(Our favorites were The Lady May and Sapphire Supper Club at Legends Hotel.)

We walked, and one of us squealed with delight while being wheeled across the Biloxi Bay Bridge. (That bridge would have been too difficult for Ty, so we used his wheelchair.)

We fished from the pier.

We caught crabs we fully intended to boil, but in the end, we released them to go celebrate their homecoming with their little crab families.

We watched pelicans perched on weathered pilings as if they had nowhere else they needed to be.

And their flyovers gave me reason to pause and observe with tremendous gratitude more times than I could count.

Peace.

And something close to magic.

Each morning, I made my way to the end of that long pier and began the day the same way I always do.

In prayer.

But there was something different about sitting there above the Gulf, listening to the water and the squawking shorebirds.

I felt closer to all that mattered.

To God.

To the natural world.

To the people I love most.

My everythings.

From that spot in Mississippi, I couldn't watch the sun set or rise directly over the water.

But I could feel the warmth of the morning light peeking over my left shoulder.

And I could picture the people who matter most to me just inside that beautiful, rented home, still sleeping or slowly making their way to the porch with hot mugs of coffee in their hands.

My everythings.

I am sure our overseas trip would have been wonderful.

And one day, I will make it to Medjugorje and Rome.

But sitting at the end of that pier, with God above me, the waves beneath me, and my everythings just inside that house, I recognized something important.

I was not missing out on anything.

I already had all that I needed.

The food, the bridge, and all the rest were lagniappe.

Life’s greatest gifts rarely require a passport.

My treasures, and my best moments, past, present, and future, were waiting just inside that beautiful, rented home.

My everythings.

My absolute everythings.