Summer come, and Away in Style

It’s arduous to explain the sweetness and awe of floating on top of the valley in an exceedingly hot air balloon: sun rising, roosters crowing as we tend to raise up from a dew-covered hillside; a patchwork of green hills and forests punctuated by late-summer brown fields; the quiet of drifting through the sky with the occasional blast from the burner to raise or lower the balloon; turkey buzzards circling unseen prey; cows mooing and dogs barking as they watch United States of America glide overhead; ruminant pausing, possibly sensing danger, as they run through the corn stalks below; and therefore the gobble-gobble of turkeys drifting up to our balloon.
As exhilarating as this was for me, nearly half the people I told about it said they could never do it. For most, it’s a fear of heights; for some, a fear of no control.
I perceive that as a result of I expertise each to some extent. Yet, I created up my mind before the balloon ride that I wasn’t getting to be afraid (unlike the time I went parasailing).
As it turns out, it didn’t require much effort. I felt calm and secure within the massive woven basket. The only twinge of fear came as we started to land on an unbelievably small patch of land in a vineyard, surrounded by grapevines and trees. But our terribly practiced pilot landed therefore swimmingly and quickly that I hardly had time to fret.
This journey caused Pine Tree State to replicate on a diary I wrote last spring concerning preparing for a “big, bold, passionate summer.” I shared tips from Nancy D. O’Reilly, a healer and girls direction skilled, on the way to keep from entering into a rut and defrayal a monotonous summer. O’Reilly, along with 19 other successful women, cowrote the book Leading Women, and she asserts that courage and a sense of adventure are keys to success—not to mention happiness.
It impressed Pine Tree State to seem for methods I may create my summer additional exciting.
Now that summer is formally over, let’s see how I did with my plans for a more interesting summer.Here’s a recap of O’Reilly’s seven tips for an exciting summer, along with my commentary on what I hoped to do—and what I actually did:

Don’t waste the weekend. O’Reilly inspired United States of America to line a goal for each weekend to try and do one thing new. My list included:

Picking berries at a farm (check)
Inviting new friends to dinner (check)
Playing tennis (check)
Riding bikes (Oops … maybe this fall.)
Going hot air ballooning (Yes, that was a biggie!)
Landscaping our grounds (Pulling a couple of weeds most likely does not count.)
Walking on the beach and watching the sun set with my husband (Well, sort of. I walked on the beach and watched a couple of sunsets, however better half did not create it. It’s not too late for a fall walk.)

Get out of your vacation rut. O’Reilly encouraged vacationing in a new place. We did not travel way this summer, however we tend to did attend AN out-of-state wedding and spent a number of days at our previous favorite vacation spot—the Outer Banks. There’s a sensible reason we tend to did not go far: we tend to area unit designing a visit to Italian Republic this fall to celebrate my huge 6-0 and our twenty fifth day of remembrance. That is really getting out of our rut!

Find creative day-trip destinations.O’Reilly suggests imagining a 100-mile radius around your home and exploring it. This should’ve been straightforward, however I did not do therefore well. I visited near beaches and spent many pretty weekends at a friend’s watercourse house. My husband and I also went to some outdoor concerts throughout the region, sampled several new restaurants and attended a downtown street party.

Learn a fun new skill.Summer may be a nice time to find out one thing new, whether or not through a category, a club, a corporation, on-line or from a disciple. I am exploitation associate app to find out a touch Italian before our trip. I had hoped {to learn|to find out|to be told} paddle boarding from {a friend|a lover|a devotee|a fan|a disciple|a follower|an addict|an admirer|an acquaintance|an exponent}, {but|however} her summer schedule {didn’t|did not} {permit|allow}. Maybe next year.

Do at least one thing to give back to your community. Giving back enhances feeling and happiness and might even cut back stress levels, O’Reilly says. I fell short on my conceive to give blood over the summer, however I spent a day weeding at our church.

Make a point to meet new people. This gets difficult as we grow older. I had hoped to connect with some new health-minded friends through paddle boarding or biking, but that hasn’t happened yet. We did have a serendipitous meeting at a farm-to-table community dinner. These new friends are also going to Italy and invited us to share their apartment for a few days.

Maintain a spirit of joy and gratitude.O’Reilly says it is vital to approach new adventures with a positive, open angle. I was fortunate to have both of my adult daughters home for part of the summer, and I made a point of being grateful for their time and enjoying activities with them whenever possible. When my older girl prompt early morning journeys to select blueberries or attend the beach, I created each effort to arrange my schedule and go. When my younger daughter invited me to try some new exercise classes with her, I went—and, despite the sore muscles—I was grateful and (mostly) joyful.