#389....renewal

          

          

          

 

"Life bears the memory of its aquatic origins.  Every living creature, animal or plant...even man...is above all a form of water."

                                           ~Jean Dorst, Water, 1990

 

How comforting it is to be able to return to a place that time cannot hold. Such an ageless place - this shoreline. Where land and her inhabitants can return - like long lost children returning to their waiting mother. With a longing unhampered by gravity or the weights of worry we run to her. And of course, she welcomes us with her ageless mystery and secrets of pasts long forgotten. And she envelopes us eagerly with her salted arms and frothy hair, and tosses us happily toward the sun - then back toward her heart - joyful of our return.

And so again, I lived as in my childhood - sun-kissed and sandy, lulled by the exhale of endless waves crashing upon the shoreline, and of the winds twisting through my hair. Again mesmerized - by the bewitching spell she always held for me. I gazed far over her - the enormous, and beautiful breathing sea, to witness again the familiar curl of her breaking waves and frothy spray, and tasted her salty air. And then I followed the trails of ghostly sands - blowing grains of time over shells and seaweed and the towels of sleeping sun-worshipers. I listened intently to the cry of distant gulls soaring high on graceful wing and heard the rustled conversation of the grassy dunes. What wonders were all around me...

Take for instance, the delight of the sandpiper's eternal waltz - transfixed by constant running to and from the water's edge in search of food. Their partner - the spill of Oceania gliding upon the shoreline...it was hard to tell who led - and who followed - that primordial, but oh, so perfect, dance...

How wonderful it was again to sink painted toes into powdery soft and sun-warmed sand - the remnants of an ageless battle of a sea against shells, against coral, and stone. As if a gentle massage, the rhythms of the sea soothed my very soul. Serenity flowed as easy and as steady as the breeze. To be able to breathe in renewal, refreshing and relaxed somewhere between the ocean’s edge and the sandy fingers of the wind swept dunes - was to read, to sleep, to swim - and to bathe in eight minute-old sunlight. Who really, can ask for anything more?