Go with the tides
Perfect
vacation tip #4: Go with the tides
As I'll mention in a
later post, we did go on a few real excursions as part of our
vacation, but mostly we just drifted in the day and ocean's
rhythms. Mom and I seemed to naturally wake with (or just
before) the sun, allowing us to take a stroll up the beach as the
sun rose.
Low tide came in the
early morning, so dawn turned up shells fresh for the
picking. Mom and I were sometimes on the beach before prime
shell-picking time, when dog walkers went out in the
near-dark. By the time we reached the north end of the
island, where the creek behind created an extended shallow area,
there was enough light to pick up broken sand dollars and whole
sea urchins. (We even saw a living sea urchin in the shallow
water our first night there!)
When my stomach
started to growl, the sun was up and the coffee walkers were on
the beach, strolling with mugs in hand. Later, we'd come
back to the beach for a quick swim at high tide.
I make it sound linear and regimented, but
the best thing about our beach combing is that it wasn't
either. Only on the last day did I realize that others were
planning their day around the perfect shelling times. Using
Mom's whimsy as a guide, I squashed my Type A need to turn up
perfect shells, and instead found beauty in the colors and
textures of fragments.
On our last day, I
felt a twinge of regret that I hadn't done this or that, but then
I realized that I vastly preferred to go with the tides.
After all, it's better to be thoroughly in the moment than to do
it all.
| This post is part of our Gratuitous Vacation Photos lunchtime series.
Read all of the entries: |
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
I can't get over how much your Mum looks like by grandmother's little sister! Well, 22 years ago, when I visited her in Canada one Christmas. She also used to come out to Australia occasionally.
Even the mannerisms, the enthusiasm, the obvious curiosity are exactly the same!