Sol y Mar, on the Rocks

Stroll on the beach with me?

Stroll on the beach with me?

We did get to the beach the other day for a couple of hours.  My peace, my soul, my bliss.  I will be happy at any beach.  Obviously, the ones with clean sand and water are better, but I’m not all that picky.  The Brooklyn beaches with their layer of scum and floating you-don’t-want-to-know-what works for me too.

The above photo is of Sandy Hook, NJ. My favorite “local” beach.  It hurt my heart to go there, seeing the damage still in evidence from Hurricane Sandy.  I’m impressed and amazed at how much it’s been fixed up over the last months, and the road on the Hook is now smoothly paved.  But you still see many businesses closed or closing on the highway leading to it, and the bathrooms are still out of commission.  No thanks, Johnny on the Spot.  I’ll skip the porta-potty and just clench those kegels until I get back home.

I’m sure I rambled about this last year, but I’m going to do so again.  Mrs Fringe ❤ Beach.  I don’t know the word for it, but there’s a feeling I get when on a beach that I just don’t/can’t get anywhere else.  Stress levels drop, anxiety lessens, I feel…calm.  I feel well.  For me, it’s like being halfway through a perfectly mixed gin and lemonade.  You know that point?  Just enough so the gin is the most delicious substance to hit your tastebuds, smiling, relaxed, that neutral strip between this-mind-numbing-daily-grind-is-crushing-me and foolishly-relaxed-and-happy-I-CAN.

Alas, poor Yorick, we loved him well

Alas, poor Yorick, we loved him well

Flower Child also loves the beach.  Part of it is not mysterious, it’s a purely physical comfort.  She doesn’t sweat, and playing in the water with the constant breeze off the ocean lets her enjoy a summer day. But part of it is that same mystery gene I’ve got, from before there were any known medical issues, when she was a baby, and the beach was just plain joy at first experience.

I wonder, if I lived on the beach, would my writing flow more easily? Or would I feel too good, and lose the drive to write? I wonder why I’ve never set a story on the beach, or in a beach town.  Maybe it’s too hard to tap into enough conflict imagining such a life.

In my next life, I want a beach house.

But for this life, I take those days when I can, how I can.  Revel in the contrast of my toes in cold waves and shoulders baking under the sun, while the scent of the saltwater wakes me from the inertia of the day to day, and the spray of the water is a protective coating.

19 comments

  2. I almost called you mrs twitch. yikes. hey, your beach pic is beautiful. I have a favorite beach. Horseneck Beach. Buzzard’s Bay. My home state of MA. Rocks and huge boulders of granite. Sharks and jellyfish and freezing ass cold winter winds that literally take your breath away. I love it, I miss it. I shall be there in October, I can not wait.

    Good luck today, mrs fringe.

    Like

    Reply

  3. I adore the beach, and not just the sand, but the granite, and the tide pools, and all the messy kelp, too. Alas, I am mostly a fairweather beach lover. Summers are perfect for beach-going, but the winters here can be deadly. We have on occasion gone storm-watching, but that’s pretty rare. Still, there is nothing like a 90-degree day in the valley to bring on a perfect 70-degree day at the coast. I’m so glad you got to put your feet in the sand, and that Flower Child got to water her roots in the waves.:)

    Like

    Reply

    1. Yes, I’ve been to one of your beaches in late Fall, brrrr. But still, incredibly beautiful.
      Being on the beach blisses me out, I already want my toes back in the sand!

      Like

      Reply

  4. I love beaches too. I love water. It is soothing. I remember floating in the Atlantic on the north side of the Dominican Republic – the ocean gently rocking me – I felt so at peace. Perhaps it reminds us of being safe in the womb…

    Like

    Reply

    1. I relate to the sensation, but not sure it’s the womb that appeals to me. For me, the beach and ocean are about expansion, freedom, possibility.

      Gawd, I’m awfully goofy this morning.

      Like

      Reply

  5. The thought of walking along the beach with my feet being splashed by water always sounds good but in truth I often find the water cold and sand annoying and it never feels as good as it does in my dreams

    Like

    Reply

  6. I feel exactly the same about the sea. We are landlocked here too but I was raised by a beach and still miss it. I always put it down to being a water zodiac sign. Scorpio here.

    Like

    Reply

  7. I love the beach too – and living in the Ozarks I am just too far from it. I love the sound, the air, the wind – so soothing. Years ago when I lived in Oregon my parents came for a visit and I took them to the northern coasts. My mom had never seen the Pacific. She was speechless. She took out her camera and took photos of white sands and white waves against an overcast sky and I laughed at her because a white photo would never come close to what she was experiencing. Bliss.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Bliss indeed. What a great story! 🙂 There is nothing like a beach, the waves, the sand, the expanse. Atlantic, Pacific, it’s all unmatched beauty and peace to me.

      Like

      Reply

Join the Discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.