Low Tide Beach

A trip to the ocean is a way for me to renew, foster a connection with the world around me and a reminder that I belong somewhere. The ocean is one of the very few constants in my life, and greeting her is like greeting an old familiar friend, arms wide open. Ramona and I have been going to the beach together since she was 9 months old; it has become our special mini-trip (as you might know from reading my blog). The ocean brings me peace and connection. As a child I stayed twice during the summer with my dad in a cabin on an Island in the gentle Puget sound. There was a little trail that went down to the beach. The beach was so empty of people, that it was always a surprise on those rare occasions that someone would come walking into view. At six and seven year of age, I was set loose to play on the beach alone for hours. I became one with my surrounding then. It was possibly one of the last times that I felt safe, there at the water's edge.  Within a month my father was arrested and sent to prison for almost three years and I left the state of Washington with my mother to spend the next decade moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, town to town, state to state.

But, I hope for my child I can create situations that will lead to the same sort of connection that I felt for those summer days on the Island. maybe one day I will find a perfect island cabin to call ours for a while.

Besides connection, our trips to the ocean are like mini-travels. I travel to open and change perspective, to remove my self from the location from which all that I do takes place. No house to clean, no friends to socialize with, no habits to habitate with, nothing to make or write, no way to get to work...leaving me with only reality, the moment, to experience and explore.  I am able to engage in the moment effortlessly.

Yesterday was a super low tide at sunset, so we had to go!