The Winter Trees in all their beauty…
What intrigues this Resort Girl about the winter trees? All you see is the skeleton of the tree – the spirit of its magnificent beauty. It is the time when their inner beauty gets to shine.
Bare branches twist and turn in such glorious natural art forms. Some winter trees wind in symmetry with branches and dried bulbs, all equally aligned.
Other limbs twist and turn to intertwine, forming abstract images. These winter tree lines are so fine against the crystal blue skies. And some trees whisper tiny tunes as their branches sway in the winter winds. Others limbs hold strong while dripped in gleaming layers of ice crystals while other fragile branches are kept warm by moss-wrapped mittens
Though some winter trees stay lush and green, this natural phenomenon offers a setting of color contrast against the bare winter tree- like the tiny brown bulb clusters on the crepe myrtle set against lush evergreen leaves. Adding in a few early azalea blossoms, these scenes are masterpieces of natural art.
And as with the tree, we all go through seasons. Soon arrives bountiful spring and summer…when our eyes get to enjoy the lush deep green leaves mixed in a multitude of bright blossoms.
But this Resort Girl loves to wander amongst the winter trees. And delight in their inner beauty against the bold winter sky.
A quote by one of my favorite personal development gurus, Jim Rohn, says:
Success is a Journey not a Destination
This seemed to be a theme this week in my reading – if you think you reach success and then stop – you will also put the brakes on your personal growth. Growth must always be a part of our life, even as we advance in age.
As I have officially arrived in the Fall season of my life, the leaves of life are starting to turn.
Like the Fall leaves, my true colors are starting to emerge. It took years to grow into who I am. Maybe that is what life is all about…growing into a beautiful person of many ideas, thoughts and – ultimately –wisdom.
We are so green and growing in our youth, just like the Spring blossoms. Then, we are bright and sunny during our adult years. Our souls are shining with new ideas and the thrill of discovery. We are like the burning rays of a hot summer day…setting the world on fire.
Then we reach the Fall years, when this growing turns our souls into their true beauty. We have become a mixture of colors influenced by all the loves, careers, cares and dares of our younger years.
Our souls are almost there…to the winter of our lives where we are wiped clean, like the first winter snow. Our minds and even hair turn to the purest of white…we are ready for eternal life.
I plan to appreciate the seasons of my life and not fight them. I will make the best of each season.
This is my season to appreciate what wisdom the world has given me and keep building and growing towards the peaceful Winter rest that is given to us.
We leave this world as we came, naked like the winter trees and with minds reborn just like a newborn.
That is my hope in life.
Resort Girl
While wandering amongst the lush summer trees today, my mind went back to the beauty of the sparse winter trees. The tree leaves are now lush vivid green, but vines and poisonous weeds choke the core, limbs, and roots. And I pondered, maybe the cold months give the trees time to clear the vines, weeds and cobwebs from their core? 
How many times does this not happen to us, Resort Girls and Guys? Like the trees, we may appear vibrant on the outside but our core is filling up with weeds of unhealthy habits and relationships. These things can do harm and even destroy our core being.
This is when it is a good time to be a Resort Girl or Guy. Go away for a few days – or even just a weekend – and look at your core. As if you were that winter tree, get down to your bare roots and ask yourself these questions:
- Do I need to build up my core muscles to live a healthier life?
- Does my soul need a bit of renewal to live a more purposeful life?
- Do I need to feed my body with better nutrients to ward off those pesky weeds of ill-health?
- Do I need to weed myself from a few relationships that are stifling my success and well-being?
I am glad this morning on my walk that those vines, weeds and even cobwebs were in my view. Soon, I will take a day on the beach and bring a notepad with these questions written upon it and do a bit of reflecting upon them…and then, of course, do some relaxing and recharging!
Resort Girls and Guys…together let’s kick out the cobwebs and pluck the weeds from our lives! Get ready to live a healthy, loving, purpose-filled and successful life!
You may think of resort holidays as a way to still be able to wear leisure white, day and night. You could also see it as running the A/C to make the heat emanating from the holiday fireplace more bearable.
What many may not have realized is the extended family a resort can provide to Resort Girls and Guys. Life brings changes…work demands, changes in marital status, children leaving the nest and even, sadly, death. Life can get demanding and may bring expected or unexpected changes —it is an inevitable part of the life cycle.
When life changes, it’s only a matter of time before holiday traditions begin to change. So maybe it’s time to start a new tradition – celebrating the holidays club or resort style!
During these changing times, extended families of non-family members consisting of close friends, new friends, neighbors and even “Club” members can develop. This week I heard about a generous golf pro who was helping with the move of a woman whose husband was dealing with cancer. He may have just been carrying the boxes, but he became a valued member of their extended family.
This sense of family extends beyond a caring resort team member, it also can come from caring club members. When you find the right club or resort, you may find yourself forming lifelong relationships. This may just be what you need during a life transition, especially during the holiday season.
Resorts and clubs can easily become part of a holiday tradition. All four seasons bring a reason for festive holiday events held at your club – from spring golfing and summer BBQs to fall festivals and, of course, winter holiday celebrations. As I talked about in last month’s article, a trip to your favorite motel or hotel each holiday season was a valued family tradition. That special place held an important space in your life and your family.
You were greeted by smiling associates…you sat down to supper with other members or guests who decided to go to “the club” or hotel rather than celebrate at home. You even danced the night away and rang in the New Year with familiar, friendly faces. Famous songs have been written about these holiday traditions.
Are they traditional? No, they do not evoke the tone of the grocery store commercials showing folks making all the fixings of a holiday feast at home, but they have their own special quality. These individuals and families decided for one reason another to make the club or hotel their choice of celebration place for the season. Surely other celebrations take place, but these folks…single, married, young and old decided to hold their celebrations together at this place away from home.
These celebrations can either be formal with silver decorations, china and silverware or casual with paper napkins and plates, but they are all a great escape from the usual traditions of the holidays.
For this Resort Girl, this has worked out great in recent years, with my life transition and moving to a new town. There is always room to add a single seat to a large, festive table.
On Hilton Head island and in the town of Bluffton, clubs and hotels to enrich your holidays and traditions are plentiful. With club parties, New Year’s celebrations and even the pro shop making a great place to purchase holiday gifts, it is far easier to drive your golf cart up to the clubhouse to celebrate and holiday shop than turning on that car key.
So, pack your friends and family into that golf cart this holiday and drive on the fairways – instead of the highways – to your holiday celebrations. You could also walk down the hotel corridor to the beautifully decorated ballroom or oceanside event to celebrate the season.
Could this be the year that you take a different avenue to your holiday celebration? Let someone else dish out the fixings and clean the plates and give you the chance to just celebrate with your family, friends from near and maybe even far, and maybe even a new friend or two…and be beside someone who may have needed a friend this year. Consider ringing in the New Year in a new way…celebrate at a hotel or club instead of home…even though home is a good option too! Just if you wanted to explore something new…hop in the car…or golf cart…
Celebrate this Holiday at a Club or Resort.
Wishing all Resort Girls and Guys a very Happy Holiday Season!
Relax, Reflect and Recharge…and REJOICE!
During a recent stay in Florida, I came upon an exhibit called “Historic Hotels and Motels” at the Winter Park Historical Museum. The museum was on a street my feet used to walk many times – as it was in my hometown.
As a native Floridian, born in Miami and growing up in Orlando Florida, my youthful days were spent amongst the palm trees, lakes and shores. And many times, I stayed in the famous hotels and motels that were showcased in this exhibit.
The Oxford Dictionary defines a motel as “a roadside hotel designed primarily for motorists, typically having the rooms arranged in a low building directly outside.”
We don’t see too many motels in these modern days. We are greeted upon arrival at a hotel by the valet, and are deprived of the privilege of pulling directly up to our room. At a motel, unloading your bags was easy, and if you forgot something in the car, you didn’t need to walk very far to retrieve it.
As the exhibit stated, many individuals – not corporations – ran these motels and even hotels – and they were entrepreneurs. And each year, folks packed in the car and drove near and far to pull up to that motel door. They knew the owners, they knew many of the other families staying, they loved this little slice of paradise.
These motels also featured the unit air conditioner. The exhibit had a typical room with the unit air conditioner, Matisse bedspread and funky sun mirror. Personally, I loved the humming sound of the unit air conditioner. We now pay money for apps that replicate that same peaceful sound, but the app does not have the cool air attached.
Air-conditioning was a new luxury to travelers in the South, as many of the beach resorts of old did not have this modern amenity. And in the end, they were demolished to make room for newer hotels and motels.
But…let’s not forget the unforgettable pool parties of past. They were amazing back then at many motels and hotels. And the Langford in Winter Park was one of the hippest places to stay – and even live. Many folks found it a way of life to reside at these hotels, or escape into oblivion. The exhibit revealed that many notable figures used it as an escape and hideout for days or weeks at a time.
But, as a photographer, my eyes went to a black and white photo of one of those infamous pool parties. I just pictured sitting there in my linen dress with short gloves and hair in an up-do, just watching the amazing, over-the-top entertainment.
The photo depicted a once in a lifetime pool party taking place. First, there was a pool filled with lovely women who were synchronized swimmers, with heads adorned with stylish rubber swim caps. Next to the swimmers, a couple was water skiing – how they pulled that off puzzled me. But, to my surprise there were also ice-skaters! A small ice rink was perched high above the pool. It was amazing; and I wondered just how you can have both warm pool water and cool ice surfaces.
Oh, I so wanted to have been at that hip pool party scene!
Then you have the wonderful motel pool family parties. Pools were filled with colorful umbrellas and plenty of poolside lounges and chairs. Parents got to mingle and take a rest while their kids played with the rest of the kids visiting for the summer. The wide-rimmed glasses, the martinis, the beach balls, the flipping of burgers near the tennis courts, all within walking distance from your motel room – how hip and fun!
I, for one, remember diving off many a motel spring board. Do we even have diving boards anymore? Waterslides are now a standard feature in many pools, but diving boards could be pretty scary – especially the high ones, which could prove painful when you belly flopped!
But those hip pool days are a thing of the past, replaced by more sophisticated pool landscapes.
On our own beautiful island, two of the original motels were the Sea Crest on Forest Beach and the William Hilton Inn. From what I have gathered after reading stories of the past and recollections on the internet, the Sea Crest was created for stranded individuals who just let the day of playing on the beach get away from them – and they needed a place to rest their weary heads.
But the William Hilton Inn was a hip modern motel of the 1960s. I discovered an old postcard on eBay featuring an image of the hotel with the caption, “Looking in from the Atlantic Ocean – features two pools, putting green, badminton, tennis, golf, dancing, oyster roasts – and free island tours.” Now that sounds like an exciting place to visit!
The Langford Hotel, the original Sea Crest and the William Hilton Inn have all been torn down and replaced by more modern inns and hotels. However, memories of all these motel parties and events remain in the hearts and minds of those lucky souls who were part of the in-crowd during those retro motel/hotel days.
A good oyster roast, round of golf, and dip in the pool never go out of style. Maybe the times were a bit hipper back then. The owners were entrepreneurs, not corporations. Most notably, the parties were amazing, and the time spent on the beach was fun-filled and memorable.
As the billboards in front of the motels many times read, “Wish you Were Here”, I so enjoyed reading all of them as we traveled down the road to our motel. And do miss (and wish) some of those old hotel and motels were still around town.
And I wondered, with Airbnb and retro trailers gaining popularity…maybe some of those old roadside motels might make a comeback.
I drive along many southern back roads. These now closed-down “motels” have beautiful settings, inviting me to imagine the days gone by. One such motel still has one room available and an older gentleman – maybe the old proprietor- sits in his metal chair and just watches the cars go by. There is something soothing about just watching the cars go by, many times in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it’s time to get that pool up and running again and add a great BBQ.
Who knew that just chilling with a few folks who came year after year to enjoy that pool, that BBQ and maybe even some cool entertainment could have been so appealing.
And then again, are we not going back to that again with the new lodgings such as Airbnb…owners who welcome you as their personal guests.
Maybe the roadside “motel” just might make a comeback….
Relax, Reflect and Recharge
