Ross and I have just returned from Tenerife and it was on this little adventure that I had a lot of time to think, as tends to be the case on holiday in between pool dips and reading the odd book.
We hit an afternoon/evening trip to Teide… The volcano that the papers only reported a week before was on the verge of eruption (goes to show how much you can trust the reports in there)… So, we headed up the mountain and stopped off at some key view points to take pictures, climb around and generally just take in the beauty of the place.
After a few stops we went to the sunset view point… Me and Ross, from Ibiza, Croatia, Mexico, love a good sunrise or sunset moment… Each one is beautiful, Ibiza had the atmosphere, that magic and applause from the vast crowds that gather round mambos, on the boats and on the beach, the togetherness you have with everyone there despite only knowing the group or person your with…. Croatia was absolutely stunning and dare I say better visually than Ibiza, but the atmosphere just wasn’t the same, it was more chilled, there was no togetherness with anyone else it was just for us and our moment… The sunrise in Mexico was so quiet, very few getting up early enough to witness it from the beach…
So, the sunset in Tenerife… The sun looked huge for starters and the sky was unreal!!! We could watch it from the balcony at the hotel and from the terrace… Stunning… But up on Teide, it was something else… As a volcano, which erupted quite some time ago, there was no life… (Other than the few coaches of people wanting to see it)… As part of the trip you were offered cava whilst the sun was setting, and what I will say is that the majority stayed by the coach purely for this reason… Ross and I took our glasses and went for an explore… We escaped the noise of the coach loads so that we could just be together to watch in peace. We walked far enough over the crumbling rocks (which I can only describe as similar to standing in the old coal pits out the back of my old council house as a kid when we still had the coal fires in) to a viewpoint where no one else was and we couldn’t hear the others on the trip… As there was no life there was an eerie silence, nothing, not even a breeze, just silence…
It was in this moment I realised that this type of escapism is extremely rare and I hugely appreciated it. The beauty was amplified, the moment was all the more special.
I appreciate a lot on a daily basis, I take the time every evening to have a think about what I have appreciated that day, often it’s just a smile or a hug from one of the Warriors, it’s the time out Ross and I have managed to get just to have a coffee together without doing a million other things, it’s the little robin or Dave the squirrel who often frequent our back garden, it’s the fits of giggles the boys are in when we’re all playing… It’s the little things.
I realised that more often than not it’s never the little things that people appreciate, even from being kids we often grow to appreciate gifts and treats and experiences like going to water parks rather than the hugs we get from our parents or the fact they take the time away from work to see our sports days, school plays or even read us a bed time story.
Those people on that trip with us, appreciated the cava more than they did the sunset… And that saddens me…
We should appreciate more on a daily basis. In this world we live in where newspapers, social media and even people around us are filled with negativity, doom and gloom, sadness, illness and even death… Surely we should look to the positives more, look to the beauty that surrounds us, the people who matter, the love we share with our partners, our kids, our friends… The fact we have a roof over our heads, have an array of foods at our fingertips and pretty much anything else we could think of… The fact that someone we barely even know cares enough to give us the time of day, the fact a complete stranger gave us a smile or a good morning.
Far too often do we spend time dwelling on our shitty jobs or how busy we’ve been or how we can’t afford something.
Maybe you can’t take time away with the family abroad, that’s not the be all and end all, go for a walk, find some peace and quiet and just enjoy the moment… It’s these moments and appreciating the small things that will change your mindset and your mood, and this will ultimately change your life…
You may call me a hippy, happy clappy or whatever you want to, but if you see life in a more positive light and appreciate what you have, good things happen, it’s not that they suddenly happen neither, it’s just that your eyes are wide enough to see them!
S x
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