Some of my earliest memories are of the beach. Growing up in Southern California, I spent a great deal of my young childhood splashing in the waves, collecting seashells, building sand castles and pestering sand crabs and seagulls. Those were happy times. Innocent and unaware of the troubles ahead. I am grateful for those carefree beach baby days. For the sunlight and salt air that wrapped itself around that little girl and made her smile. The ocean became a part of me then in a deeply spiritual way. It came to represent playfulness and a time when I lived with an unguarded heart. It came to symbolize the purest essence of myself in a joyful state of being, thus beginning my lifelong love affair with the sea.
I don't live near the beach anymore, and I miss it. Life is busy. Time and money so often are in short supply, so vacations can be hard to come by. I frequently think of moving to the coast, even though I really do have a great life where I am. I am not sure that is necessary yet, although I do feel it will happen when the timing is right. I know for certain though that I need to at least get to the water more, because it is only at the ocean that I finally fully exhale. Like a primal instinct to open, relax and return to my true nature. The ocean draws me to it. Calls with a familiar comforting voice that assures me that everything is going to be ok.
At the beach I am not the girl working on her tan. I am the one out in the water completely immersing in the sensory experience of it. Allowing it to fill my heart and soothe my soul. There the stresses of daily life wash away with the tide. My body, mind and spirit become aligned with nature and breathing feels free and easy. The gentle breeze kisses the skin and the sounds of the waves crashing close to the shore are comforting. Both random and consistent. Powerful yet calming. Untamed and vibrantly full of life, but still welcoming and peaceful too.
Ocean imagery is all over my pages in both words and pictures, because to me it symbolizes peace, joy, retreat and healing. Sunlight shimmering on the water. The wisdom found pondering in quiet moments on the sand. Gifts given to me that I hope to share with others. To me the ocean, in essence, is a place of love where my inner child laughs and plays. And that, above all, is where its true magic and beauty is found.