I’m watching waves roll white.
Three precious heads are bobbing high and low on water that’s awake and roaring, and there’s nary a cloud nigh. The sun is beaming down heat, the sand is happy and warm, and Mama is pleased to sit here and let the pen work.
The sea is my sonnet this week.
I’ve watched for years now as friends have found their way to coastlines with their families. While thrilled for them, I’d also feel a twinge of envy and woe over not getting the chance to let the breeze run free and easy through my own family. But by grace, here we are now – finally on our very first family beach vacation.
It feels sweet.
I’m learning a few things already, like how sand sticks to everything (and everyone), and that it will drive you ballistic if you allow it. And that people should always bring wagons or something of the sort to help out with the beach load. And I’ve learned that children delight in anything that involves riding on a golf cart with no seat belts.
They are all grins and happiness.
As I watch them bob and flow on the water, I’m also thinking that I should really learn to roll rather than resist. When difficult or irritating things arise, I tend to vehemently combat them. I’m realizing however, that often times it’s in the clinched push-back that I end up defeating myself and prolonging my detriment.
If I were to ride what rode in rather than recoil from it, gosh….I might end up learning, or growing, or building character, or forging new pathways in my brain or something. And perhaps, if I were to face things, accept them, see what they have to offer…. rather than fight and flee them, the hard season might cease a little sooner.
It’s worth considering.
See how the sea is my poetry this week? I’m thankful.
Whatever you find yourself doing over the next several days, friends – I hope the lessons come gentle and sweet. And I hope you find some encouragement and healing in one way or another. Before I push the publish button on this post, I’ll pray that it’s so. Blessings to you all.
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“Perhaps this is the most important thing for me to take back from beach-living: simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid; each cycle of the wave is valid; each cycle of a relationship is valid.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea
