Go Big or Go Home

Sometimes I feel the world is just spinning too fast. Everyone seems to want everything bigger, louder, and instantly. Everywhere I look, someone is wanting their piece of the pie, their fair share. I used to hear it’s the little things that matter most. Now everyone is telling me go big or go home. And I am supposed to hurry up about it.

This was especially evident recently when my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. Well-meaning friends said, “25 is BIG! Go on a cruise. Go to Paris.” Go big or go home. Knowing an elaborate vacation was out of the question, I did daydream about Paris. After all, it’s Paris. I imagined myself standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in the City of Lights, wearing a beret, my long red scarf blowing in the wind.

“Bonjour,” they would say.
“Bonjour, ya’ll,” I would answer back.

We would visit museums. We would shop. We would eat fancy pastries. We would go big. Then we would go home.

Of course, the 3 boys that live under my roof were not in my daydream. And being the good Momma I am, I wasn’t really going to run off to Paris and leave them so far away. So we settled on Warm Springs, a mere 45 minutes from home. Because the good Momma in me always thinks about the what ifs.

Warm Springs holds a special place in my heart because it’s where we spent our honeymoon. As a broke young newlywed blinded by the hearts in my eyes, it was the most beautiful place on Earth. It was quiet and sweet and full of antiques and Christmas lights. It was right out of a Charles Dickens story.

I wondered if it would seem different after all these years. Would it seem small-ish? After all, it doesn’t get much more not Paris than Warm Springs, Georgia. Somehow, in a world that has continued to spin out of control, this little place has indeed remained small-ish, wonderfully small-ish. Maybe it was the hearts in my eyes or the millions of little twinkling white Christmas lights, but The City of Lights didn’t hold a candle to Warm Springs that night.

We went small, and we went home. And it was big.