TIME FREEZE PLEASE
I did a bit of business yesterday, had a little chicken salad for lunch and then was compelled to head to the beach. Not everyone has the usual paradise or oasis down the street so I figured I’d cut out in the middle of my day and do something a little unusual.
Siesta Key was voted the number one beach in the USA. It’s not hard to see why, once you get out there. Usually I go through the little village catering to bar dwellers, towel buyers and jewelry shoppers and just head around to the left to the same beach that the rest of the world goes to. Yesterday, I went to the right.
I stopped to visit one of the many cottage homes, bungalows and apartments for rent on the beach. I parked the car, took off my shoes, rolled up my cuffs and went for a walk on the beach.
It’s hard to describe the kind of beauty one can find in this little corner of the world. The colors and textures reproduce themselves everyday. The lure is to just walk, or sit or just watch the water come in and out. The guilt felt from one’s habitual need to do something else, something unwanted, something needed, something for someone else… is excruciating. How can one just sit and breathe and feel the cool breeze coming in off the gulf? How can one just walk, for no reason, with no particular place to go?
I lifted my sunglasses off my face several times, because I thought the polarized lenses were making the view more luscious than it really was. I was wrong… that’s how it really looks.
Some people are not the kind that are capable of just sitting or walking… they must always be doing. And for those people they can paddle away. Yesterday, everyone and anyone with a vessel, scurried out to a miraculous sandbar that just appeared off the beach. Flying around in the shallow warm water was a giant Manta Ray that everyone wanted to see up close.
In other parts of the world, crimes are being committed, assaults are being performed, trauma is being inflicted, impending doom and gloom darkens people’s’ worlds for countless reasons beyond their control. But in this little corner of perfect, there is nothing but this.
A step off the beach will change the scenery and pop you in the eye with some exotic purple flower blossoming out of a deep green thick vine.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find someone beautiful and brilliant to sit next to as you both solve the worlds problems, while staring out at healing beauty. When the roasting energy of the sun has delivered all you need, retire to a rocking cushion under a sea grape tree, sip some exotic cool nectar and marvel at the cool breeze that makes a perfect moment.
Hidden among the trees are electric blooms of light that turn on the festive once the breathtaking sunset expires.
The bulbs blend in with balls of light and dark, while the shade reminds us that some shadows are rewarding places to find protection.
Off to the side rocks a hammock between the palm trees. The lines between fantasy and reality blur as you imagine the sway within the cradle of paradise.
Barry Stein's Blog 