❤ Hammocks & Puppies ❤


Bahia Drake, Costa Rica

♫ ♫ ♫ What the world…needs now…is hammocks…and puppies ♫ ♫ ♫

There’s been too much notable heartache in the world this last week. I’m emotionally drained.

It seems that everywhere I turn is heartbreaking, gut-wrenching news that brings me to tears. I should probably cut back on reading the news. But quite frankly, it’s a terrible addiction that’s been a decade in the making. I’m over-informed and over-emotional – a dangerous combination. It’s a sickness I can’t cure at the moment.

What I can do at the moment is share a bit of joy. Pure and simple J-O-Y.

Pictured here is me in southwestern Costa Rica about two years ago in a tropical rainforest, getting smothered with love by sweet, adorable puppies while swinging in a hammock, with not a care in the world.

It doesn’t get any better.

I spent a month in this part of Costa Rica volunteering with a sea turtle conservation foundation (a uniquely memorable experience I’ll share with you in another post at another time). While I do admit with shame that I continued to feed my news addiction while I was there, I did maintain a sense of detachment that allowed me to immerse myself in a lifestyle of simplicity – Pura Vida, as the locals famously refer to it.

Can we all please just have a little bit more of this in our lives? Pura Vida? Hammocks and puppies? Seriously, I think it could help make the world a happier place.

Just look at the sheer joy emanating from me and my fellow volunteers Elena and Marija in the photos below. It was such a simple time.

It was just hammocks.
And puppies.

It was just joy.





Photos taken September 2014
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My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones at Pulse and to the whole of the Orlando community; to the Coxes and the West Yorkshire community; to the Grimmies; to the Bateses and the Nelsons of Tacoma; to the Graveses of Omaha; to the Quims; to the Frasiers; to the Kushners; to the Yelchins. Rough week with too much mourning. Tears for all, and so much love. ❤

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