Do you ever have those days where you wonder what in the world you are doing with your life, how you got here or what were you thinking? I have those days often. More and more lately as I am uncovering the challenges of being a work at home mom with an active 6 month old, an always-growing pile of laundry and dishes, dust bunnies in every corner and goals up the wahzoo but little to no time to accomplish them.

Whenever I have days like this I always think about the day we went on the Road to Hana in Maui, Hawaii. It was a gorgeous drive, don’t get me wrong, it was picturesque and the perfect day- weather-wise to accomplish the task and dominate the drive and enjoy the sites along the way. But it was everything but the perfect day we had hoped it to be. The drive was wrought with challenges along every corner. What were we thinking when we dragged along a three month old? She needed to eat every two hours, we couldn’t go on the hikes we wanted to or make all the stops we wanted, she didn’t nap very well and was grumpy for most of the day but really that was only half of our troubles. Add that along with car sickness, dangerous roads, wrong turns and other crazy happenings- I remember thinking as I pressed my face against the window, how did I get myself here? This is supposed to be the trip of a lifetime and it’s just plain miserable!

But then we stopped at Wainapanapa Black Sand Beach. And it was as if the world stopped. Time stood still. All was right. It was everything I imagined it would or could be. The sand was soft and warm and the water tickled my toes into a frenzy as I quickly ditched my sandals. BabyTravels giggled and cooed for the first time that day. She loved the soft sound the waves created as they crashed gently around us. These sweet and tender moments, even as short as they lasted, had truly made the whole trip worthwhile.

While the trip was not a complete disaster and we did get to see some amazing things along the way- it was a giant headache. So now when I have days where I want to call it quits and jump out of the treehouse and break my arm like I did when I was 8, I think about these simple moments of bliss we had at the black sand beach among a day of hurtful hiccups and it reminds me to find joy in my journey and enjoy the unexpected surprises that happen along the way- even in the smallest and most simplest forms.

Tags: Hawaii, Road to Hana

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 8:49 pm and is filed under My Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.