Salt Water

“The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea”.
Isak Dinesen (pseudonym of Baroness Karen Blixen. Danish Writer of Out of Africa)

On Wednesday I decided to take a walk on the beach. That walk turned into a three hour (plus) hike that covered 7km of beach (14km return)
It was my kind of day for walking on the beach and it was very therapeutic. Just me and the gulls and the small shore birds. Roaring waves, unrelenting winds, my camera, and a small lunch. Not your standard Rx but a good one none the less.

If I had been blindfolded and driven to this beach that I have walked so many times, I would have taken a very long time to recognize anything familiar. The severe storm surges we have had in the last year have altered the look of this piece of landscape tremendously. Most noticeably on arrival is the "remains" of the out buildings along the beach front and parking area. There is very little left. No change rooms or bathrooms left. The boardwalks and stairs bridging the area from the parking lot to beach are totally gone and all that remains are the rooves of 2 shelters that once had picnic tables under them. The face of the beach has altered a lot as well; little bodies of isolated water, little streams connecting them to the larger body of water. Large ledges of stones that were not there before; patches of exposed peat/turf; even the curve of the coastline along the beach. A reminder of how things evolve and change, not only in nature but in our daily lives.
Even with all the changes some things were still the same, and there is comfort in that.

Just like in our lives, storms come along and batter us and change things we don't want changed, but some things are constant and we take comfort in those things. We pick up the pieces that remain and make something beautiful, or fun with them reminding us that life does indeed go on.

note: I didn't start this post intending to be so thoughtful or melancholy, it just happened as I looked through the pictures I had taken on my walk. Losing Mom has seemed to make me so thoughtful of life; of how much we take for granted and how quickly things slips away. I pray God keeps me grateful for the family, friends and material blessings I have in my life today.

"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has." - Epictetus