I’m sitting on the balcony of a Courtyard by Marriott, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I’m not here for the family vacation, which I’m deducing is the common motive, by listening to the noisy groups of people standing in line for their coffee orders before heading out to the beach. Instead, I’ve accompanied my husband on a business trip. He’s off bright and early to his presentation, and I’ve dragged the rolling desk out to the balcony of my standard, business type hotel room, to do my own work. There’s nothing fancy here, but somehow, being alone with the trade wind breeze, watching the ducks float around in the pond, spying the tourists on the golf carts, in the nearby tiny house/trailers and condo communities, is just lovely.

I often use the phrase “new places!”  and it’s a catch-all for many things. New Places doesn’t have to mean a lavish- faux, social media staged, fantasyland resort. My sentiment is to find joy in every new place. This morning, I’m tucked in a more quiet corner of a very bustling and kitschy resort town, and yet… the wildlife is beautiful, the trees are lush and tropical feeling – with some palm trees dotting the landscape. Likely, this was all planted as a buffer between properties and just overgrew into a thicket, but the ducks and birds don’t care either way.

We spend so much of our limited time planning the big things, while not noticing the fleeting little things. They are always there waiting for us. Do you remember laying in the grass as a child and watching the clouds in the sky… floating by, taking new shapes? This morning, I feel the openness of an eight year-old, gazing at my new place, this little micro thumbnail of the world.

Enjoy your next new place. When you realize that you are in it, take my advice and become the observer. Don’t lose the opportunity. Notice how the wind blows the trees, the color of the morning sky, the songs and chirps of the birds, the flow and rippling of the water, the comings and goings of the people and animals. Feel your toes in the grass. Immerse in the now, wherever that is.