Office With A View

If you have to sit on hold, listening to benign elevator music, waiting to talk to the insurance company, you might as well be looking at the ocean.

This was my thought as I took my bike ride on the beach path this morning. It was one of those absolutely gorgeous, perfect beach day mornings that personify Southern California. Say what you will about the traffic, earthquakes, fires, whatever you want to come up with to hate on California. But if you want perpetually perfect beach days with no humidity, this is it.

As I looked out at the sparkling water, perfectly blue skies, lazy rolling waves, and miles of mostly empty sand, I thought, as I’ve thought too many times to count, “Why don’t we go to the beach more often?” Whenever we do, we always say, “We need to do this every week.” Here we are, less than 2 miles to one of the most famous beaches in the world, and while we ride down almost every other day on our bikes, we don’t spend that much time sitting in the sand, enjoying the spectacular beauty.

Why is that? People live near amazing natural wonders all over the country, but the only time we go enjoy them is when out-of-town company comes and we want to entertain them. We are so darn busy. Who has time to just go sit and ponder the deep thoughts that come with witnessing nature. We have our earbuds in and our emails to open and our lists to check off. We had a pretty strong wake-up call during the pandemic, and many of us rediscovered nature and the beauty of a slower life. But that’s over baby, and we are back to business!

One of the best things my husband and I did when our daughters were growing up was to make a hard and fast Friday night routine. We took them to the beach for sunset and happy hour, followed by dinner out at “our place.” Every Friday. We sat and enjoyed the calm peacefulness after a busy week, and the joy of three little girls playing in the sand. And every SINGLE Friday night, an older couple would stroll by and call out to us, “Enjoy these moments- time goes too fast.”

And it does! Too fast, in fact, to let opportunities to fully enjoy each day pass by, especially since we’re now that older couple! So, as all this flew through my mind as I pedaled towards home, and I wondered why we don’t go to the beach more often, I am proud to say I made a snap decision. Today my office was going to be on the beach.

I rode home, packed a lunch, some ice tea, my computer, phone and to-do list, grabbed the beach umbrella and loaded up my trusty bike. I’m sure I looked ridiculous, with all that and a beach chair on my back, but who’s laughing now? For once, when I asked myself why don’t we enjoy the beach more often, I actually gave the right answer. Instead of sitting at home on my computer and phone, I’ve spent the most perfect afternoon at the beach. And I’ve actually gotten some work done too!So, this is me saying “Just Do It!” Not very original, but believe me, your office can be anywhere, so why not change up your routine and make it somewhere beautiful?