Life in 360 Degrees

Normally after I come back from a vacation, I get those post vacation blues. The don't-want-to-get-up-and-go-to-work-yet funk. But today I am feeling strangely elated. I mean really, really good. Inexplicably-peaceful-battery-fully-charged-happy.

So, perhaps you are wondering about the title. It is my new motto, words that came to me while I was snorkeling around the leeward side of Oahu, chasing dolphins. While I bobbed around trying not to open my mouth in amazement (sudden intakes of fishy saltwater do not enhance the snorkel experience), this thought popped in to my head. Life is 360 degrees. If you don't turn around, look around once in a while, you might miss something amazing. In my case, as I focused on the spinner dolphins 15-20 yards away, I nearly missed the ones flanking me on the left, perhaps only 15 feet away.

Life is 360 degrees. It's all around us. Don't get me wrong, it's a great thing to be focused, to take the most efficient route from A to B. But it's ok, I think, to be tempted to meander a little. To study the flowers. To gaze in to the sea and be mesmerized. To float above a group of sea turtles and watch them rock in the currents. To count the shades of blue.

Maybe that's what vacations are best for ... reminding us that there's a bigger world than the one we're chasing. Today I will turn to the left and to the right and see what I've been too tired to notice. I will look in to the faces of the people I meet and smile at them. I will let this happiness spill over. I will keep reminding myself of what God told me in the squeaks and clicks of spinner dolphins: "Look all around you, not just at what's before you. Life is 360 degrees."