By the Sea ~ Tasha Halpert ~ Living Each Day

The sound of the waves on the sand lulled me to sleep, and
soothed me as I awoke. Three nights by the sea in a small
southern Maine town was the highlight of our one week vacation.
My husband and I enjoyed every minute of it. Each of us grew up
near the shore, and being by the ocean is very special for us both.

As we walked along the beach I delighted in seeing the webbed
bird tracks intermingled with human footprints in the wet sand.
The gulls were omnipresent. Sometimes they would gather in
small groups, the brown younglings and the white adults
companionably together like a family. Then swooping and soaring
they would take off and fly overhead the sound of their shrill cries
echoing all the way back to childhood.

As the tide rises, sand castles that children have abandoned
succumb to the encroaching waves. Their ripples smooth away
the anonymous inscriptions scrawled and left behind on the sand.
Like sleep the advancing tide irons away all traces of that and
those who have passed there, and when it retreats leaves behind
a blank slate for who and what is to come.

In an old family album there are pictures of me as a child in my
sunbonnet and matching sun suit, digging with my shovel in the
sand. Now I walk into the water and my toes curl with its chill
just as they always have since I was small. When I am by the
shore it is as if I am all of a piece and the places I have been
and the things I have done melt into the waves. Here by the sea
I become one with myself and with all that I am and have ever
been.

© Tasha Halpert
Used with permission

Please honor author's copyrights by seeking permission before using
this piece in any way. To reach author, click on her name above.

Photo by Jimmie xx