Close your eyes for a minute after reading this. Imagine you are at the beach. For those of you that have actually been, remember. for those that have not, visual any pictures or recall anything you may have seen.Take it all in, walk around. Touch something. do what you normally would do at the beach. Just be there in your head.
…. waiting ….
Now open your eyes. What happened. What did you hear, see, smell? was it windy? was it sunny? was it cold, or did you feel a warm breeze? was it raining? was there dead wood, or happy birds? what was there? I want to know what you experience when you are at the beach. I want to know if you are searching, waiting, living, experiencing, thinking, sleeping, or walking.
I love the beach, it’s one of my favorite places. This morning, par usual, I was not sleeping. So I took a walk. I really didn’t plan on walking on the beach, but I ended up doing so. At first I walked south. I found a starfish.
He was still alive, so I put him back in the water. I really haven’t just wandered on the beach in years. My life somehow got put in the fast-lane and I forgot what I was doing, or where I was going. I forgot what I enjoyed. I left behind parts of myself that should have been a constant in my life. Somehow that starfish found its way onto the sand. Either by its own inaction to remain buried, or because it ventured to close to the breaking waves. It took a risk, and nearly died. Had we not met, surely he would have been bird food within minutes. Sometimes you just need to bump into someone new to find your way back to where you belong.
The rest of the morning I came across hundreds of thousands of shells. Numerous crabs, a rather large Blue Crab arm that was quite intriguing.
At this point I turned around. I started wandering north. I don’t know why, but north was where I was headed. Its wonderful to be able to stop the world from spinning and just listen. the waves, the gulls, the wind. birds waking up. the sounds that we have all but erased with our iPods and cell phones. I haven’t heard this or experienced this in years. It was wonderful to be back. The world will sing to you if you are willing to listen.
The hundreds, maybe millions of tiny shells I wandered past seemed to me as if they were or are the people that have touched or will touch my life. So many of them are the same. Unique in their own little ways, but essentially the same. Just white noise in the background of life. The ones that stand out, the ones that make an impression. Those are the ones that you should pick up and take with you. I found a large shell, still attached in the middle. A rare find for its size. Further down the beach, I came across a tiny Sea urchin shell. Still fully in tact. But singled out. a few yards away were two larger ones. Seemed like a little family split apart by the waves. I came across various others during my walk. I kept the attached pairs. I even found two pairs of white shells, almost identical. I also found many dead crabs. they don’t seem to make it. Either they get too close to the water and drowned, or the crushing waves destroy them. I wandered for over 2 hours. I didn’t have a plan on stopping, and eventually I came to a place that just said turn around. I had told myself during the walk, to turn around at a certain time, but the minutes flew past, and I kept walking. Then, I was done. no rhyme or reason. I just stopped, and wandered home.
So what did you do on the beach? were you searching for a particular shell, or collecting the ones along the way?
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