In the Arms of the Sea

We were invited to spend the weekend at a beach house on Fire Island this weekend, so we packed up our knapsacks, hopped on the ferry, and headed over...

The sea was rough due to offshore hurricanes, and it was magnificent to stand on the beach and watch the waves crash onto the shore. Some of the waves were cresting at heights eight or nine feet!! Standing there feeling the water that was just up to your chest rushing out to sea until you are standing on bare wet sand, and seeing a wave rise up in a wall of moving water that is rushing directly at you is somewhat... intimidating to say the least.... being hit by it is something else again!!

I spent some time out in the ocean, swimming around until I got tired of being picked up bodily and hurled onto the bottom and rolled along like a piece of flotsam over and over!!

I am a strong swimmer, and am very much at home in the water... but the sea was tiring me out after a while, to be honest.

I was thrilled to be there... something about the sea speaks to me... it always has.

I am a creature of the water, and the ocean lives in my heart. I seek out the ocean when I am happy, when I am grief-stricken... when I'm pensive.. just about anything makes me want to hear the waves crashing, feel the salt spray on my face... and smell the ocean air. I crave the sea, and I need to be near enough to it that I can go to it on a whim. There is nothing like it! I absolutely love it!!

We had a fantastic time!! The food was unbelievable, the people were friendly, and the constant sound of the ocean was like a lullaby to the soul.

Standing there facing the ocean, seemingly on the very edge of the world... and looking out over the vastness of the mighty Atlantic reminds you of your real place in the grand scheme of things... it is very difficult, I think, to not feel insifnificant when you are facing the ocean in its fury. It is a good thing to be reminded of what is and what is not important and enduring. I needed this weekend... I needed to be held in the arms of the ocean... it is like a balm to the spirit...

We got plenty of fresh air, lots of sun, and for some of us (me) more sea water than we knew what to do with!!

I got a kick out of watching the sandpipers running like hell away from the waves, and then running back to pick choice morsels off of the sand as the retreating waters revealed them!

I learned a thing or two from them... after being slammed to the bottom twice in quick succession, I got to my feet only to have a very bad feeling; I had been in neck-deep water a few seconds before, and I was standing on bare sand. The first rule of the sea is that you never turn your back on her... not even for a moment!! I looked back over my shoulder and a HUGE wall of water was rushing towards me like a freight train!! I took off like a bat out of hell!! Every one burst out laughing because, apparently, I looked very much like a very large sandpiper running away from a very large wave!!