Beach weather

I went to the beach today, wearing capris, a 3/4 length sleeve shirt, and no shoes. It has certainly been a mild December so far. I'm told that there's bad weather (wind and rain) coming in the next few days, but I don't mind particularly. I need to hole up a bit this weekend, to get caught up on preparations for both Christmas and our annual January vacation.

So I am ready for a rainy day or two. But I surely enjoyed the sunshine which enabled my walk on the beach today. I even put my feet in the ocean, which was quite enervating (read: chilly). The sand was warm from the rays beating down through the few puffy clouds, and I had the beach almost entirely to myself (there was one additional car in the parking lot when I arrived, and I could just barely make out another person, presumably its driver, quite a distance down the beach). I love walking across the dune crossover at the "Lifeguard Beach", with its slow introduction to the wonder that is the ocean. First, I hear the waves. Then, I see the dunes with their waving sea oats (stalks only now, the full heads having dropped off to seed new ones). In a moment, I get the first glimpse of the horizon, that lovely line where light blue sky meets dark blue ocean. Next is the glimmer of sunlight dancing on moving water. And finally, the rolling surf breaking and arriving on the shore. If I'm lucky, I might see some dancing dolphins, and there are almost invariably several birds sharing the area. I haven't seen a whale yet, but I know plenty of others who have, and believe I will be blessed by that vision at some point.

Today was clear and the light made it easy to see for miles. As I climbed the steps to the platform at the end (or beginning, depending on how you look at it) of the ramp from the beach back to the parking lot, I looked up and saw the village, which made me smile in the same (and yet slightly different) way that seeing the ocean always does. I thought "there's home", and almost burst with the joy of that truth. In the parking lot, I stood next to my car, looked up at the sky and its wispy clouds and said "thank you, thank you, thank you", crying tears of gratitude and happiness. Later I was talking to a lady who said that every time she gets out of her car at night, she stops and looks up at the star filled sky for a moment before proceeding into her house and on with her evening. I think this attitude of gratitude, this taking time to stop and appreciate the beauty of home and of our lives here, is a wonderful way to live.

Okay, I'll stop waxing poetic now. :) Go look at the sky (or something else in nature) wherever you are. It is a beautiful world!