Joy At the Beach

I'm currently visiting family on the west coast. Helping my mother out with projects that she has wanted to have done for a while. Playing in the pool at my brother's. Going to the ocean.

Call it a "working vacation"! I am enjoying myself, getting some things done and playing, so it is all good.

One of the things on my list of "must dos" when I come is to visit the beach. Living in a beautiful mountain state is great, but we do enjoy the ocean when we are here. While in the water the other day a Harbor Seal popped up within 15 feet of me...he looked as surprised as I felt when our eyes met.

Another of my favorite beach critters are the pelicans. At home we have white pelicans. Here they are brown. The original Jedi fliers...tight formations inches above the water in the channels created by the waves.

When I got too cold in the water, I took a break and warmed up on the sand. I get quickly bored if I sit still with nothing to do, so I started sculpting in the sand. I created a dolphin, about 5 feet long. That was fun. Even when the water came in and started to dissolve my work. It all felt very natural, like the tides had come to claim one of their own.

The temporary nature of working with beach sand is an interesting experience. Very quickly done and quickly lost. Going into it, you know they are only for a short time.

What a great metaphor for life! We never know how much time we have. So, use the tools you are given (or you develop) even if the are "only" your hands. Take those tools, the ready material and create your life--not just a career, a real life! Give it dimension. Revel in the softness, the sensuous curves, the hard spots, and celebrate when nature takes its course. We don't know which wave will be the "big one" or when that big wave will come to claim us. We just know that there will be a big one with our name on it. Rather than wait in fear, not creating what we really want for fear that it will be lost, we create anyway, knowing someday it WILL be lost, but we are not creating for some day, we are creating for today, now, this minute.

How sad to live a life with no mourning because nothing was risked. I know that my life will contain mourning and in an odd twist, that makes me glad. By feeling the grief of loss, I prove to myself that I have lived, created and achieved something in this life.