How to have a practically* perfect day

1. Wake up early and watch the sun rise over a salt marsh.


2. Eat a terrific breakfast, cooked for you by someone else.

3. Sit in a screened porch and watch the colors of the salt marsh change as the light grows brighter and clouds pass by.


4. Dance with your husband to the song that you danced to for your first dance at your wedding reception.

5. Go kayaking on the salt marsh.

6. Read a good book while sitting on a second floor balcony overlooking the salt marsh.

7. Give yourself* a facial. (This is the reason this list is called how to have a practically - not absolutely - perfect day. If it had been absolutely perfect, someone else would have given me the facial at a lovely, relaxing spa.)

8. Buy a piece of art just because looking at it makes you smile, even though you are not sure where you are going to hang it and the colors don't match anything else in your house.

9. Sit in a comfortable adirondack chair in the shade while enjoying a peanut butter, banana and honey smoothie.

10. Learn something new. In my case, this was a visit to Old Fort King George outside Darien, GA. It is a fascinating site, with a reconstructed fort building, a small museum, an informative short film, and a nature trail. It is very well maintained and was highly educational about the history of this area, starting with the first inhabitants - the Guale Native American tribe - then continuing through the Revolutionary period and the sawmill industry which had a major economic impact on the area for a century. The high point of the visit for me was climbing to the top of the fort building and looking out over - what else? - the salt marsh.


11. Sit on a third floor balcony watching the salt marsh turn gold as the light shifts toward sunset. Listen to the sounds of the marsh at low tide - pops as air is released from the mud, and the cries of birds calling to one another.

12. Stand on the balcony one last time before bed, looking up at the stars in the dark sky, and down at them reflected in the water of the salt marsh.

13. Count your blessings.

Okay, so admittedly I love salt marshes and your perfect-day-list may not include quite as many salt marsh moments as mine did!

Here's a quote which seems the perfect way to end today's blog:

Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-witholding and free
Ye publish yourselves to the sky, and offer yourselves to the sea.
S. Lanier