Whenever I end a vacation, I have this impending feeling of, “Welp, back to reality.” But I had a moment of realization as I sat at the airport awaiting the return flight from this last vacation: it’s all reality. Yes, my trip to Grand Cayman was a dream incarnate. But it was real.

Every. Piece. Of. It.

And I realized that we sometimes say “back to reality,” to mean “back to the daily grind.”

I LOVED my trip to Grand Cayman; I live for the salt life. But I also love my daily grind. I love what I do for a living – the people I work with, the fact that I get paid to do what I do, and the industry that I am BEYOND fortunate to work in.

I love to explore new places, but it is my daily “reality” that enables that. The fact that I chose to work a good 9-5 gives me the money I need for those joy-inducing escapades.

And even the grind of the dishes and laundry—there’s a certain measure of joy in those, too. Doing those chores enables me to have a clean house, which I revel in when I’m not gallivanting around the earth.

My vacay pictures on Instagram may make my life look like a dream, but the fact is that it is my life. It is my reality. And I will keep leaning into it and grabbing all the joy that I can.

In between, I will kick my feet up on my coffee table with a glass of wine in hand after work, gaze around at my clean house, and be thankful for it all.

Because life is beautiful. Life is amazing. Life is good.

-jz