The Beach

Coming up to the water’s edge I slipped off my pack and gave a heavy sigh. Another day done. Another 25 miles walked. The sun had begun to set and the tide was starting to suck down the sand so that with every step your toes would start to sink. I sat down on the beach as a flock of pelicans skimmed the ocean’s surface in a long line of at least 20 birds. They flew as one; the leader pulling up, arcing back into the sky, the rest following his every move. A large man and woman held hands as they passed in front of me. The man was lobster red and the woman’s backend seemed to be falling out of her swimsuit. The perfect compliment to this picturesque sunset that lay before me. As the couple waddled out of sight I noticed that I now had the beach in either direction completely to myself. The sun slipped below the waves and the world turned a mysterious purple and blue. I knew within minutes all light would be lost, but I wanted to soak up the remaining twilight.

As my mind slipped and my thoughts began to wander, I came aware to the ever obvious realization that the ocean is huge. It stretched out in front of me and I suddenly felt my heart and mind collide, trying to comprehend its distance.  Suddenly everything seemed so small and insignificant. This walk. The donations. Life itself. When compared to this expansive body of water, how could anything ever measure up. We’re just little blips in time, a speck on the map. Just then, the stars came out and the feeling was really driven home. Before me, an ocean of water. Above me, an ocean of stars. And here I was, just a single person worrying about everyday issues and concerns. What did it really matter, in the long run?  A weird feeling had come over me and I felt like ocean itself was swallowing me whole.

I looked down at my toes which were now covered with a few inches of sand. I remembered the thought I used to have when I was little, that if only I had a penny for every grain of sand… I’d have at least, like, a thousand dollars! Each piece of sand, making up this huge stretch of beautiful beach. And thats when I realized you can look at the picture in two ways: The ocean and the stars are huge and expansive and I’m just a speck within them. Or I’m just a speck that makes up a part of the huge ocean and sea of stars. That each and every one of us form to be the expansive feeling that we can sometimes feel. That really, you’re just as big or small as you make yourself feel. Maybe my life is just a blip on the radar, but it is my blip. The only way that it could be insignificant is if I tell myself so. As I got up and brushed off the sand from my shorts, I decided that my little blip was most certainly worth while. And as my heart inflated and carried me back to shore I couldn’t believe that I had ever doubted it.