NY Trip Recap and Thoughts on Rest

Every year, my family makes the trek to East Pitcairn, New York to visit my grandparents. If you have been reading my blog for the past two years, you know how much this place means to me. It is a place I can truly relax, recover, and rest my mind and body and I love it.

Rest. I personally struggle to rest. It is very, very difficult for me to simply do nothing. I feel unproductive, lazy, and negligent. Throughout the years, especially since coming to college, rest has become so many things for me. I savor rest found through getting enough sleep. The first night we were there, I got a whopping 9 hours of sleep...which literally NEVER happens. I was not mad about it, though. The rest of the time we were there, I got around 8-8 1/2 hours of sleep, which is perfect for my body.

Rest has become doing the little things that soothe your mind. In New York, I did so much reading and ended up finishing the Chronicles of Narnia series AND I started another book my mentee, Hosanna, gave me last year. Along with reading, I got to help my grandpa in his garden picking green beans and peas.

As weird as it sounds, I love the smell of dirt--especially after it rains. As we picked the beans, my hands became covered in dirt and mud and at first I became a bit annoyed, but then I realized how amazing it is that we can grow our own food and pick it. Suddenly, I didn't mind the mud anymore.

Random side note: I will have a garden someday.

Rest has also become being at peace with what I eat. For more on my journey, click here.

That means I ate food I typically don't eat all of the time. Like ice cream.

Treats and Tiques: Round 1--PB swirl frozen yogurt

Lots of it.

Treats and Tiques: Round 2--PB swirl again because it is so good

With glop...the heavenliest chocolate topping on earth.

Glop: Round 1

Glop: Round 2

Glop: Round 3

And it was awesome! I'm so, so thankful I've gotten to a place in my journey where eating ice cream doesn't stress me out.

Rest also means treating my body and mind well. In New York, I got to move my body by taking daily walks and breathing in the fresh upstate New York air.

Mentally, I enjoyed and admired the beauty of the scenery. Beauty is so good for the mind.

Rest means embracing each moment and opportunity to see something new. We got to go to Boldt Castle while we were in New York and then visited the Christmas Story house on the way home.