the little things: the one with the squirrels

Happy Wednesday friends! This month has totally gotten away from me, which I will blame on the fact we spent part of it bobbing around the ocean sipping the foofiest of frozen cocktails, and the rest enjoying the chaos of wedding season kicking into full swing. So before we get any further into April (which, let’s be real, will soon be MAY) I of course can’t skip my most favorite part of the month! That’s right, it’s time for another round of The Little Things! If you’re new to these posts, check out the very first one HERE, and if you hang out on the blog often welcome back! Now, lets get reminiscing!

The Little Things: March 2016

The Squirrels

There was a time when we weren’t always living the life we hoped we would. We had graduated college, gotten the very first teaching positions we applied for, and spent every day going to our “real life” adult jobs that life had taught us we should. We had given up the idealistic vision of having creative jobs, and everything had gone exactly how we planned, so why were we so unhappy? In those times, the ones where we spent every day apart teaching only to go home and spend our nights making plans for the next day of work, we would spend our afternoons dreaming. About a life where we would spend our days together instead of apart, doing something that lit a fire in our hearts. And most of those afternoons of dreaming took place at what we dubbed our squirrel park.

About 2-3 times a week Ben would leave his job at the high school in Saint Augustine to pick me up from my day of teaching second grade, paperwork and lunchbox in hand, and we’d drive to the gas station to pick up a 99 cent bag of peanuts before heading to the park. We’d lie on a blanket with about thirty squirrels around us, tossing peanuts and dreaming about a different future than the one we’d thought we’d wanted. The life we live today was mapped out in that park, and because of that it holds such a special place in my heart. It’s the place where I learned as a grown up that it was okay to chase a dream, no matter how big or impossible it may seem. FullSizeRender 4

We went back to feed those squirrels a few weeks ago. After an engagement session with a sweet couple, who valued us so much they had us travel three hours to shoot with them. And every bit of it just felt surreal. To be up there again, now living a life we had only dreamed of, more happy and miraculously successful than we could have hoped. We splurged that day and got two bags of peanuts, and after all of mine were gone Ben gave me his last three. And as he put them in my hand and I protested, saying they were his and that I had already used all of mine, he simply said “this is all for you”. And then I tearily fed the last three squirrels before we walked the tree-lined path back to the car, feeling so lucky for such an overwhelming number of reasons. Lucky to be valued by our dream clients doing a job we adore. To get to get to travel to such amazing places doing it. And to do it all alongside a man who didn’t think it was silly to dream with me all those years ago in a little squirrel-filled park, who is more thoughtful than I could imagine and more giving than I probably deserve.

Happy Wednesday friends, go out today and chase a dream or feed a squirrel.

I promise either will put a smile on your face : )

Love + Laughs,

Sarah

 

 

Want to catch up on all my favorite Little Things? You can find past posts here:

01. Introduction

02. Bagels &  Acro Yoga

03. The Paper Eyebrows

04. Mugs & Mini Horses

05. Broken Shorts & Spaceship Boxes

06. Planes & Pancakes

07. Getting Older & Airborne

08. The One Where I Cried

09. My Nice Words

10. Crazy Voices & Old School Ankle Weights

11.  Carlas & Kiddos

12. The One with the Squirrels

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