When my husband and I were in Las Vegas recently for our wedding anniversary, what we wanted most was a day by the pool. We picked Mandalay Bay because we heard it had a good pool and it turned out to be true. In the morning we laid out on lounge chairs and floated in the wave pool. After lunch we thought about getting inner tubes for the lazy river.
At first we were hesitant. It was getting later in the day and the inner tubes were $23 a piece! They let you keep them but who knows if we would really use them again (we’ve been using them for five years now!). Finally we decided that we rarely spend money on ourselves, so we may as well splurge a little – I was so happy we did!
The lazy river, it turns out, is not so lazy.
It moved very quickly and we had very little control over the inner tubes. We found ourselves crashing into people (who were also laughing at crashing into us), unable to move in time to miss a waterfall, and being raced by another couple.
We ended up cracking up and I was very glad we did something so silly. Over the past few years we’ve suffered several losses in our family which has left a bit of a heaviness in our lives. There was something very therapeutic about careening around corners and kicking off the sides of the pool to ping pong around the waterfalls.
Who would have thought something as simple as floating in a not-so-lazy river would lighten our lives a little?
I would love it if you add comments about some of the things you have done that you found unexpectedly funny.
Nicole is the creator and editor of Mind over Messy. When she lost her mom suddenly 11 years ago, she made the decision to be really present and treat life as a precious resource. Bringing mindfulness to what she did was an easy progression until she remembered she had two small, spirited boys making it feel impossible to think at times. Mind over Messy was born of the desire to get the quiet connection we need to stay centered, in the messiness of real life.
Welcome! Our modern lives can be so hectic that it is so helpful to find easier ways to get a healthy meal on the table, meditate even if the kids are loud, and stay active any way that we can fit it in. This blog is dedicated to making Mindful Living Easier.