The best part of my recent book tour through Florida had very little to do with my book tour through Florida. It was more about the people I met, the sights I saw, the food I tasted, the things I felt and learned. Time passed at a leisurely pace, my mind felt open and boundless. Sea gifts. A good thing.
The first time I saw the sea I was young and we were in Mexico, on the Pacific side, and I found sand dollars and brought them home. I’ve never forgotten those early impressions—the vastness of the ocean, the salty breeze, palm trees and sandy dunes. The seashore was a place of myths, miracles, history, science, the unexplained and remarkable.
A place for thinking.
A place for not thinking at all.
When I was a kid if my teacher gave me a crayon and a blank piece of paper, I drew rough, basic, go-to pictures. The sun—a bright yellow circle with rays in all directions; a house, two-story with square windows like eyes and smoke curling from the chimney; a tree, usually Christmas tree-shaped but sometimes more freeform; a flower, always a daisy, he loves me, he loves me not; and the sea…with pointy, aqua-marine waves, seagulls above, fish below.
I probably drew the sea more often than not.
I’m home now, hundreds of miles from the ocean, yet I carry gifts from the sea with me. My suitcase overflows with clothes still scented with the smell of salty air. A sugary layer of sand fills the floorboard of my car. Sand that gets everywhere. Sand that I’m not in a rush to vacuum.
Shells hang from a string around my neck.
I feel relaxed and refreshed.
I wonder if my footprints are still on the beach, or if the tide has already washed them away.
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
[tweetthis]Sea Gifts: I wonder if my footprints are still on the beach? @VISITFLORIDA #LagunaBeach #LoveFL [/tweetthis]
“I find there is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid, fuller than before.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Musical Pairing:
Sea of Love – Honeydrippers
Sounds like you made the most of your trip, including some needed and deserved down time.
It was a great escape.
Talya, you make me so jealous of your asventures you describe inn your grace, grits, and gardening. Keep having fun and allow us to follow along with you cousin.
What a great adventure! Glad you got some down time.
I’m so glad you had that time on the beach. You must go with me someday.
I love the way you used the present to traverse the past, and tie it (gracefully) to your book… I too agree, deeply, that “the seashore was a place of myths.”
Do you know Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gifts from the Sea? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxbXbj3xunA ore Charlotte Zolotow’s Seashore Book? https://www.amazon.com/Seashore-Book-Charlotte-Zolotow/dp/0064433641
Yes, I love Gifts from the Sea. Thanks Crescent.
To think, I was cousefnd a minute ago.