Lucky Us

Have you ever travelled the same road day in and day out and maybe had to stop somewhere you never do along that route and noticed something or someplace that you had been taking for granted for months, maybe even years? Maybe it was a tree, or a house, or some other man made landmark. Perhaps it was just a pond, or a meadow that you had noticed, but had never really looked at?

PinF had such an experience today, reminding me just how special and often taken for granted our lives and surroundings are. Imagine if you knew this was your last day; it's a safe bet you would drink in ever last nuance of the most mundane objects, places, and things you had come to take for granted on a daily basis. Today Sophie and I were traveling home down US1 in Juno Beach through an area that is populated by scrub pines and typical Florida brush. Difference was this was all made in to a perpetual natural reserve just recently, and though I've driven past maybe a 1000 times I never really enjoyed it's real beauty until today. To my credit, it hadn't been a navigable area until only recently when county money was secured to purchase 578 acres of what would be considered prime real estate. Situated between the intra-coastal and the ocean this new reserve is an awesome testament to what Florida once was.

Sophia and I had pulled in on a split-second whim, and lucky for us. This park begins with a path lined with blooming wild flowers populated by colorful butterflies.....the paved path winds for 1/4 mile down ever so lightly in elevation until you come to man made boardwalk that then takes you over a salt water marsh. The area is teeming with hawks, foxes, rabbits, snakes, lizards and other birds of prey as well. As it was, Sophie and me were the only car in the park, and as we walked we became removed from the developed Florida, and walked as the Seminole surely must have a century and a half ago. This land was in fact a former battleground of the Seminole and US Army in the 1840's. Soon the boardwalk gave way to an incredibly fine, powdery white sand path that proceeds to disappear even deeper in the scrub for another 1.5 miles until you finally loop all the way around to where you started.

The day was a brilliantly sunny, warm one. And as we walked further and further in time and place we began to shed man's noises until you heard only the vultures, or a splash of a turtle. A really neat find this park, and one that I'll now visit more often using the loop for an exercise trail. As I looked in the view finder of my camera framing my beautiful daughter it occured to me how symbolic the path that lay behind her was, full of opportunity and untapped discovery. Upon walking out of the park together having our typical father daughter chat, Sophie and I realized and she commented, just how lucky we are. I quickly agreed and then added, that the trick in life is to always recognize how lucky we are.

I think she knew what I meant.