“My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I have always loved the ocean.
So much so that I feel that a year is incomplete if I don’t have time to just park my ample backside in the sand and stare at the water for a few hours…or days…or weeks.
Okay, I never get to do it for weeks. But I have found that I need at least a week at the beach every year for mental and physical health.
If insurance companies understood that, they would pay for it.
And sure, it’s a desire more than a need and I’m very fortunate to get to spend time there.
I’m also fortunate that I’m only a two-hour drive away from the coast. I don’t get there often enough but I seriously believe I’d have trouble breathing if I lived further inland.
One of my favorite Aunts always told me that, since my astrological sign is Cancer (seriously, couldnt we use another word?) I am a person who needs to be near the water.
That wasn’t her sign, but I think she instilled in me a love for the shore. All my life she lived off of the Virginia coast, except for a few short years on the left coast.
I’m sure that people smarter than I could connect the cycles of the waves and the moon and figure out why I feel such an attraction to the ocean.
The Write Side Shop
All I know is that once I park my chair in the sand the gunk of the world slowly washes away.
We’re adjusting our week at the beach next year and going in the spring rather than late summer. It’s a compromise so that I can take an old man road trip with my best friend in August. More details on that as they develop.
I used to think we’d retire to the beach. That doesn’t seem so likely anymore.
But honestly, I think I’ll be content to retire anywhere that doesn’t require me to do the yard work.
As long as it’s no more than two hours from the ocean.
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I have always loved the ocean.
