Salt Water, Sand, Sun…

Salt water, sand, and sun…and Kids! The definition of the word beach comes in many forms. For me that definition is a 3-hour drive to the East – My deep connection with it stemming from childhood – I was fortunate enough to have parents who loved it themselves, privileged just enough to spend several weekends over the course of summer swimming in the “big pond”. According to family lore, my first vocal reaction to seeing the ocean was something akin to the following: “Daddy, it’s a big pond – I wanna get in it, I wanna get in it”.  Get in it is what I did – I was three or four years old then, and to me, the beach meant army shovels and sand castles, swimming and putt-putt, fried shrimp, late summer nights with the Drifters, and hot summer days with the Beach Boys. I would have no idea what it meant to my parents until some years later when I would become an uncle and later a parent, myself.

Sand, by nature, is abrasive and has the ability to shape and polish. The healing power of salt-water is more than mythological – it’s factual. The sun, to the right degree, showers us with essential vitamins we need.   Working together, on a beach, these three elements have the power to transform a person. Take one component away or take each piece of this delicate puzzle to a different spot on the map and its meaning changes. Sand in a box box is just sand. Salt water in a glass is just salt water. Sun, without water of any kind, can be a searing nuisance that we all hate to see. At the beach, one chemical reaction gives way to another and in tandem the response is transcendent, spiritual and soulful in nature– at least for me. A year is a lifetime, over the course of which many things can happen, both good and bad. Layers upon layers of life and living compound and like dead and dying skin, our souls, in order to shine, require cleansing, reviving, and generating anew.

Our time there, away from the real world, would begin and end on a Saturday, the week in between filled with smiles, laughter, relaxation, and above all things – Love; five adults, eight kids – One big, barrel of fun. Cody, Ashton, Chloe, Jordan, Dalton, Allee, Matthew, & Savanna – ages four to sixteen –they helped further invigorate the soul stirring reaction of salt water, sand, & sun that we found at the base of the dunes; they helped Sailfish Street come to life. Mornings began early with the smell of bacon and eggs permeating the salty air – Pounds of bacon, dozens of eggs – feeding eight hungry children, the second closest thing to work us adults would experience all week. The first being the daily movement of the necessary items from the house to the beach and back again – Our white canopy tent, a plethora of chairs, sand toys, boogie boards, coolers filled with refreshments for kids and adults alike, snacks, sunscreen, more sunscreen, and finally a football. Days meant dodging the sharks that were causing such a life-altering stir at the next beach up, nights meant dodging the sharp oyster beds found just off the edge of our dock at the bottom of the canal – venturing out amongst the sharks and the oysters, tricky, yet good for our being; the risk to wash away a lifetime worth of troubles worth it in the end. Each adult, each child putting their own, unique stamp on our week away from the typical life of work and school that we live back home. Like kindred spirits our connection became stronger as we raised the flag to mail away our plights, as we raised the flag in hopes of a better tomorrow.

As we crossed back over the intercostal waterway and onto the mainland of North Carolina I could feel my mind fully transitioning back to reality. Life is a hunt to prove we are something meaningful, a hunt to find that version of ourselves, which constitutes the best we have to offer this world and those we come to know. A week’s worth of sand helped to shape and polish me into a better man; a week’s worth of salt water helped to wash away the fragments of my being that had become too much to bear; a week’s worth of the sun’s rays penetrated my soul and helped to restore it’s radiance; and, a week’s worth of eight kids gave me inspiration, gave me hope. Through their eyes I saw my life as it once was; a dream-like glimpse of what’s to come; and, over the course of a week’s time I was able to see life again for what it is: A gift – where the special mixture that is salt water, sand, sun, and kids comes just when we need it, to help us climb out of the valleys of everyday living and back to that higher place where we can see the true purpose of our existence.  Life isn’t always beautiful, which is exactly why we need those moments that are.