Gratitude for the Beach...

I go through periods of time when I am there all the time.  Then I go through these long droughts of beach time.  Not sure exactly why.  How can something be so important to me that then gets overridden by other things?  

We have been having a very warm November.  Gotta love Southern California.  The days are getting shorter, but our weather is more like July, except the crisp air in the morning and evening is a gift of Fall.

I guess when I am going through stuff, the beach or mountains are where I turn.  Lucky for me, I live in the mountains and the beach is only 25 minutes away.

I have walked the beach a lot lately, mostly in the late afternoon, the sun hanging low in the sky, low tide making the beach impossibly large and vacant.  The heat is welcoming and the water feels warmer than I know it is.  I just walk the beach, taking my thoughts, troubles, concerns, cares, heartbreaks out for some air.  It does good.  Every time.

Life at the beach is always the same, but always different.  There is always sand, surf and sea life but it never plays out the same.  One day I went to my favorite beach and there was a whale washed up on it.  On other days it is littered with lobster tails and jellies.  It is always the same and different.  Which is kind of how life is really, same ingredients every day, but it all sorts itself out differently, each day.

I have a tradition of walking the beach, all the way to the end and then writing in the sand,at the water’s edge, all the things I need to let go of, and then I stand by and watch the water take my worries out to sea.  There is something so life affirming to see my troubles, fears, losses, carried off and out to sea.  The slate wiped clean, once there were problems scribbled there, and now there is just fresh, wet sand.  It is all I know to do sometimes, to make an offering to the ocean, knowing it will know better what to do with me and all my issues.

For someone who loves the beach as much as I do, I am not a get in the water person all that often.  I love the water but it is just too cold for me.  I am more of a Hawaii water person, not a Southern California water person.  I get in about two times a year on days that are over 100.  That is all I can do.  The whole cold plunge thing is lost on me.

And the fact that some of the best beach days all year occur in November feels like some sort of birthday gift from the universe.  And so I go as often as I can in November.  Not wanting to waste any of the good beach days that feel like they are coming rapidly to a close.

I love a good cold walk on the beach too.  But there is nothing quite like an errant hot day on the beach when the rest of the world seems to be bundling up.  It is almost a strident opulence to walk in your bikini on the beach in November.

I am grateful for beach time.  I am grateful for the proximity.  I am happy to have a place that feels like solace to me.  Actually, I am grateful I have several of those places in my life.   The mountains, the beach and later this month I go to Big Sur which feels like the most epic combination of both.

Life is not a beach, but I am grateful my life happens in such close proximity to a most wonderful slice of s easide.

Again, still...

I am grateful for

Getting my new HVAC today

Purring kittens on my lap

November

Saying no to a man that asked me out yesterday

Choosing loneliness over distraction

Being able to withstand my own anxiety

Long walks on the beach

The day off today

All the veterans who served our country

Being able to go to the celebration today for my dad

Finding out new things that change the way I look at people and things

Good night’s sleep