Saturday June 21st, 2008
She finds simple joys in a wet, cold sand dollar in her hand. And in running (slap, slap, slap) down the morning, low-tide beach after her baby sister.
She splashes in shin-deep, icy water that makes her feet numb after a few minutes. She carries a bright green bucket, almost as neon as the algae that has washed up on the sand. They both squint in the new sun and squeal as the low waves rush at their knees.
She half fills her bucket with intact sand dollars and giant shells that haven’t been broken by the surf. She carries them, up back and over the dune, to sit on the back porch facing the water.
Content, she hasn’t asked about home, not even once. She hasn’t asked about the cat, or about what waits for us when we drive back tomorrow.
This is the easy joy of being a child: being unencumbered by the whole big world; being able to focus on a single sand castle, running full speed slap-slap-slap down the sand, jumping in the waves and collecting shells on the morning beach.
I love the concept of easy joy, and it looks like your family has enjoyed a lot of it on your vacation by the sea. Lovely!
I have been reading your blog for about a month and I love your writing.I would have kep lurking but I have to ask, where is the house you are staying in? It looks so beautiful and sounds peaceful.We went to Pismo last summer and stayed in a hotel but a house would be so much nicer. Thanks, Melissa from Temecula
Beautiful, just beautiful. You make me long for the beach!
beautiful pics. matty looked at them and said ‘i want to go to that beach!’
Isn’t the innocentness of childhood a special gift from God. There are many days when I wish I could revert back. I am so glad that you are all enjoying your vacation. I feel as if I have had one through you. I am not even sure of the exact places you have gone but they are all from my childhood. This week you have taken me back on a journey and I can only thank you for that. Have a safe trip home!
Oh, I use to collect sand dollars on my grandparents beach as a child every summer.
Seeing the picture brought back so many memories for me……
i want a vacation like that
)
to be like a child – with no worries…just the joy of collecting sand dollars and sea shells. ahh….
Tears and tears–big fat alligator tears–welling up here as I’m trying to fathom a return to that kind of childlike focus, that unencumbered joy that can tune out and forget all else. I think I needed to see the world through your daughter’s eyes this morning.