ThriveWisely

All day, I’ve been a bit discombobulated. Work was back-to-back with meetings and rigmarole. Nothing *bad* or out of the ordinary, truth be told. I was just off, feeling a bit out of sync. And then, my very insightful friend Susie nailed it. I think I’ve fallen in love. Not with a person or even a place exactly, though the latter comes closer. I think I’ve fallen in love with a time and a space.

The Queens and Shaggy pub quiz team was due for a reunion, so Elissa, Emily, and I (The Queens) road tripped up to Bayfield, WI this weekend to visit our partner Steve (Shaggy) who had the good sense to leave the city and head for the lake (yes, once again a great lake–and, in fact, the same lake I posted about before). Here’s the thing…in addition to a beautiful setting surrounded by the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior in the cutest damn harbor town you’ve ever seen, there’s something that happens–on arrival–when you place the car in park and you set your feet on the ground and you breathe in deep…

Time. Softens. and. Space. Expands.

Or maybe it’s the other way around or maybe it’s even both. In any case, you notice that the frenzy is gone–it’s just disappeared. And you see that calm in the faces of the people you meet. And you catch the sparkle in their eyes. These are folks who don’t let things like multiple fires–the stuff of legends, here and here–get them down or get in their way because there’s music to be had and friends to be made. Lovely enough, it’s infectious. So that by the time you crawl back into your car and prepare to plunge headlong into the bustle once again, there’s something of that time and space that sticks with you. At least it has with me…

So, if I seem a little blissed out or far away (you know…all of those ‘head over heels’ symptoms), don’t worry about me. I’m on Bayfield Time.