Missing the beach...

Yep, I miss the beach. I guess who doesn't right?! Well, perhaps those that already live there. I honestly find that I am genuinely rejuvenated when I spend time at the beach. Life seems so simple there. There is sand, water, shells, rocks, and birds. Doesn't sound too exciting, and yet many people LOVE being there, I am one of them. I can sit on the beach for hours and just people-watch.

I love watching the families that bring their toddlers to the beach for the first time. They are my favorite. When the little ones are holding on to Daddy's fingers and stepping out into the water for the first time and they feel the wet sand between their little toes and the cool crisp water and realize that it comes close to their feet and then draws back to the big wide ocean and comes back again. To see them pick up sea shells in their tiny little hands and show their new-found treasures to Mommy! How exciting for them!

I also like watching couples. From newly dating to 80-year-olds who still hold hands and walk together along the shore line. I appreciate how a simplistic walk on the beach with your "honey" can be such an amazing memory. You can look back behind you and see two sets of footprints in the wet sand symbolizing the journey you committed to taking with each other and yet, seeing it this way in a quiet moment with all God's magnificent beauty around you provides you the opportunity to quietly re-commit yourself to your spouse and be thankful for the time you have together.

I LOVE the wind at the beach. I love that it is so strong and breezy and how it flows through my hair. But beach wind is filled with such wonderful fragrances too. I can smell the water, the seaweed and kelp and just the fresh-ness that the ocean brings in. So very un-polluted, almost pure. I can close my eyes and remember what it feels like to have that wind in my hair. I just love it.

Just in writing this I feel relaxed. Remembering all the special things that the beach means to me and to praise God for such a wonderful destination to look forward to every once-in-a-while. He is the Great Creator and today, I am thankful, simply for the beach...