Miami Beach

Instructions for life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

Mary Oliver

We got away this past weekend. To Miami Beach. For an absolutely gorgeous wedding. We left the girls at home with Grammy and Dad-Dad. And this was hard. To leave. It always is. But I am realizing that it is important, and profoundly so, to escape from time to time. To soak up new scenes. To step back. To live a different, slim chapter.

The view from our cool and charming hotel room? Brilliant. Beyond a canopy of palm trees, the ocean. Water of an improbable and enlightening hue.

Down below, under those trees, a vast swirly-shaped pool. People. Frolicking and relaxing. Swimming. Sunbathing. Being. Living.

The little towel huts on the beach bore bold "R's" for our hotel - The Raleigh. But I liked to dream that they were monogrammed just for us, the Rowleys.

A pink sky.

Happy feet. Sandal-clad. A shadow. Loyal. Hovering.

A lone gull on a stretch of sand. Solitude amidst a benevolent bustle. Alone in a crowd. Pensive, aware, and yet part of a bigger beach, a wider world.

One of the absolute best parts of the weekend? Celebrating an exquisite couple, well-suited, tousled by strong winds and deep love, smiles legendary.

But the best part of the days? Spending time, time alone, with a certain guy.

This weekend? It was fun. It was necessary.

It was good to go. It was good to get home. It was good to pay attention, as much as I could muster, to be astonished by the new and the old, the fresh and the familiar, the soft sand and the salty air. And it is good to be here, telling about it.

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When was the last time you were able to get away? To a different place, to the same place? Do you love attending weddings as much as I do?