The deep pine smell fills my lungs. It is one of the things I love most about summer.
That and starry nights, warm evenings with a glass of wine, my kids playing for hours in forest and on beach… without any need for interference.
What do you love about summer?
Maybe you have noticed, but the warm evenings have that crisp air mingled in again. Fall and winter is on its way. It brings both sadness and anticipation to this snow loving family.
Life can be a bit contradictory when you are a writer about the outdoors. In this world of social media and instant sharing with the world, it is so easy to be caught up in the sharing but lose track of the actual experience. It often causes me to wonder who I am doing all “this” for… for myself or for the opinions of others.
After all, as writers and bloggers, our lives are measured in WordPress posts, unique visitors, and pixels.
But the only people who should measure our lives are ourselves and the close ones we’ve invited into it.
At the beginning of the summer Chris pondered aloud, “I wonder what it would be like to go out and do something without telling anyone?”
Not sharing a photo on Instagram. Or updating your status on Facebook. Not putting the activity on Strava or tweeting about your adventure.
I mean, we’ve become so accustomed to sharing every detail of our lives that it begs the question: If you didn’t post it on social media, did it even happen?? (Kidding)
Our summer has been so full.
Full of backpacking.
Full of swimming.
Full of adventure and evening dinners picnicking in the mountains.
Some of them we’ve told you about. Some of them we haven’t.
And while I am committed to sharing our adventures with you for the purpose of inspiring other parents to get outdoors, I am also committed to adventuring secretly with my family. To leave some things private. But it is a hard balance, isn’t it?
So I’ve taken my husband’s dare, to do something (even a bucket list item) and tell no one. No. One.
How about you? How do you balance the privacy of living with the lack of privacy found in our modern world?
Just like you, we do a lot that we never share. Mostly because we run out of time, we don’t want to be obnoxious or we just want some things to ourselves.
But then, I have an experience like I had this summer. Nothing outdoors, in fact the opposite of outdoor adventure. Reaching out on social media and sharing my tale of bad health was the biggest blessing of my summer.
So while it’s good to keep some things private, its also good to know when to share.
People are remarkably giving and they want to help. They just may not want to know about every weekend adventure we take! LOL
Nicely done Alyssa.
Thanks friend! I agree. It takes some wisdom and often risk to know when to share and when not to!
Great post, Alyssa! Sharing:o)
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