My disappointment threatened to ruin that week until I decided to
practice the act of surrendering.
So much of my reading has directed me to pray and yield to God's will.
Apparently, provided one's intentions and desires are neither immoral, illegal nor selfish, God will arrange one's universe in loving support of the bigger picture of our (small) life.
I tested it out.
Backstory: An embarrassing fact about myself is that I do not enjoy museums.
I may even have inadvertently (conveniently) passed this trait onto my children.
Going to Washington DC, the museum capital of the world--in lieu of one of my most favorite beach vacations made the situation even less enticing.
However, once the "Key West substitute" of DC started approaching,
I did not dread nor dwell on what I was missing but rather focused on looking up individual points of interest for all of us.
Once in DC, aside from watching Kika play ball, we also visited the Holocaust Museum, Museum of Natural history, Museum of American History, the Ford Theater and Madame Tussaud's wax museum.
Steve and I were even able to go for a run.
On one excursion with Gabi to Dupont Circle, she and I witnessed a guy hand-feed a squirrel. (!!!)
We socialized with the other basketball families.
We ate in Ben's chili bowl--BO's favorite hotdog place.
My sister Charissa (who was coincidentally in the area visiting her Steve) had lunch with us.
It was amazing to discover how much one's enjoyment of life hinges on how we frame it.
Not even the sudden downpour that soaked us in the evening could dampen our enjoyment of our hotel's complimentary happy hour.
The other day I broiled a couple of "Key West type" lobster tails I bought from Aldi's for $12.99.
It was while I was eating them, that I came to the realization about a few things:
1. It is much easier to cope with disappointments when we remain open to the possibility that something equally great or even better may be just around the corner.
2. Our annual Key West trip is enjoyable because of the company and not the lobster.
And
3. The frozen lobster tails from Aldi's taste identical to those fresh caught ones "we" dive for during Lobster Week.