Tonight, as I slowly roasted an entire butternut squash in the oven, filling my house with the smell of autumn, I looked through a few photos I took while in the sunshine state this last week. These pictures make me feel at peace. I went to Florida for work to shoot portraits and a wedding, but spent an equal amount of time losing myself in the water, the conversations between me and two of my best friends, pure food indulgences, a lot of laughter, and sunsets that seemed to assure me that it was okay to let go. So I did. For seven days I forgot about to-do lists, money, my second job, the people who have hurt me, or the physical pain and stress my body and mind have been under lately. I ate the biggest avocados I'd ever seen (picked from a friend's yard), saw wild dolphins almost every day (and one sting ray), found an unbroken sand dollar, bought myself a 90-minute massage, ate lots of fresh seafood, and got carried from shore in an undercurrent while on a child's floaty in the clearest ocean water I'd ever seen. As Jemaine would say in this song, the conditions were perfect. Perfect for letting go.
