Beach Blues

There are places… corners of heaven on earth where one is meant to feel at peace.
It's these places that people go when they seek out their solace and equilibrium.
For some it's the mountains, other's it's the sea…
Your bedroom, a rooftop, a meadow…
Places you go to listen to your soul.

The ocean…
Powerful… Majestic…
Yet made by single drops of water…
It soothes… It surrounds…
It demands both admiration and respect
And when I feel like my soul is in turmoil;
The waves wash away the noise, calming my heart into hearing its own voice.

Stretching out a towel on the warm sand, I was grateful for the sun's embrace and wondered where my mind was when I considered trading in the warm sunshine for the artificial light of office lamps…
Spreading cream on snow white skin, I prayed for some colour despite the sunscreen I was defending myself with.
I usually only vary between two tones: White and Lobster.
Taking in my surroundings, I smiled at the two girls competing for mum's approval, showing off their cartwheels for anyone that would look.
There were two surfers in the distance waiting for the perfect wave that probably would never come in the stillness that the ocean was in.
There was a man with a heavy duffel bag selling potatoe chips and two towels to my right was a woman with baked brown skin that looked like she camped out on the beach for a living.

With little or no patience to attack the book I was reading, I took deep breaths of the salty air and beseeched my body to relax…
Any minute now…
My muscles would give in to the zen of the atmosphere, melting into the towel below me…
Right about now…
I should feel my body surrender to relaxation...
Sitting upstraight, irritation has the opposite effect
Why can't I relax?!

Opening my eyes, I'm suffocated with the image my eyes soak up…
Blue…
Bright Blue…
Deep Blue…
Infinite Blue…
The ocean, the sky… Blue.
And inside my chest, my heart chokes and drowns in blue.
A tear runs down my right cheek and I get the sensation that had I looked in the mirror, it too would've looked blue.
From the corner of my eye, I spot a plane in the distance with a blue tail.
Air France.
The sight of it should make me happy… and yet…
I felt blue.

Do you believe that when you ignore your heart's will, your soul becomes disturbed?

Mind over matter!
If you focus on what you're trying to avoid, you'll only make it stronger!
Ignoring the accusing cry of a seagull taking flight, I grabbed my book from my duffel bag and lost myself in words and sentences and paragraphs and pages…

Sunset
The final burst of heat and colour before succumbing to darkness.
The end of a day…
Too late for those that didn't grab the opportunity to feel it's warmth…
To early for those that prey off the shadows of the late hour.
One big star gives way to all the little ones…
An ocean of blue gives way to tones of pink, purple, orange and gold….
In moments… all will be dark.
For some it's the end, for other's a beginning.

As the sun went down on my day, I sighed in resolution that all was as it was meant to be.
I wasn't alone… but most importantly, I didn't feel alone.

Inner peace isn't found in the places where God poured out his imagination… the tranquility that one seeks comes within.
You can run in a million directions, arrive at a million destinations and still feel that you haven’t gone far enough…
Because you can't escape what you can't control and the taming of the beast within requires no more than the strength of spirit.

What have you done lately to put your soul at ease?
I'd stay and share my experience… but I'm late for a date with myself on the beach…