Beaches

Beaches

    I always thought that I was one of the luckiest kids in the world.  I grew up near the beach.  I don’t recall a moment when I didn’t love going to the beach.  It’s interesting to me how my love for the beach has evolved over my lifetime.  The beach is still one of my favorite places to be - it’s just my activities at the beach have changed quite a bit through the years.

    My Dad spent his entire career in the ocean.  He was a civilian diver for the Navy at the Charleston Naval base.  He will not step foot near the ocean now.  He cannot stand the beach.  I wonder if others that spend their careers near or in water feel the same way when they retire.  My guess is probably not.  My guess is that if you are a world champion surfer, the ocean is your home.  Of course, surfing is probably a lot more fun than repairing ships under water!  

    Lucky for me, my Mom loved the ocean also.  We were at the beach quite often when I was a kid.  Dad hunted or fished ... we swam like fish.  Most often we would visit Kiawah Island.  Kiawah is one of the most beautiful places in SC.  I still love to go there.    

    We always went with my cousins.  We would swim way out to a sand bar and dive for sand dollars.  It was like a gold mine.  You could bring home hundreds if you wanted.  I’ll never forget those sand dollars.  My cousin, Wayne, would paint pictures on them ... light houses, beach scenes, etc.  He is very talented.  I often wonder what happened to all the sand dollars he painted.  How did we manage to lose them over the years?  They were one of a kind.  

    Rarely did you find me on the beach.  I was always in the water swimming myself to complete exhaustion.  Not once did I get stung by a jelly fish or see a shark.  The ocean seemed quite friendly to me.  I guess around high school is when I first started seeing changes in how I enjoyed the ocean.  It was much less about swimming and having fun in the water and more about laying in the sand and walking the beach.  I would still get in the water, after all when it is over 100° you had to cool off somehow.  However, I started to become more keenly aware that I was really the bait in the water.  Somehow, being at the bottom of the food chain didn’t seem quite so appealing to me.  Therefore, I was less about swimming and more about tanning.  

    I would say that is still my stance on the beach now.  I will get in the water but only briefly to cool off.  And, my tanning has become much healthier with an umbrella & SPF50.  

    Time has not just changed my activities at the beach.  Time has changed the beach also.  I can’t recall the last time I found an intact sand dollar at the beach and the dunes are changing.  I wonder if my days of swimming were really affected by my fear of being eaten by a shark or by the lack of endless sand dollars?  Was my fun removed from the ocean and therefore led me to realize the millions of fish swimming between my legs?  Could it be that as my cousins either moved away or began college that my experiences at the beach started to change?  How does life get so busy that we forget to meet once a year and have fun?  Could it be that my changed attitude for the ocean is really a grieving process for the lost moments with my cousins?  

    Maybe what I really want is not necessarily swimming to exhaustion but rather the time together with my cousins.  To create new memories with them that include my “grown-up” family.  For my daughter to fondly recall playing on the beach with her cousins and playing card games with us grown-ups.  And while two of us no longer live near the beach, couldn’t we still create these memories once a year?  Wouldn’t that strengthen our bond?  

    The beach is our common ground.  It’s still there.  It didn’t leave us, we left it.  It still wants our company.  There are a million excuses why we don’t meet once a year ... but only one that matters.  We don’t make the time for each other.  If the beach can’t bring us together, what will?