It's been a few weeks since I've brought you along to the beach with us. And that just won't do for accurately representing my summer in Maine. So let's journey there today, shall we?
Someone asked me recently why we go to the beach so much - doesn't it get boring? I felt the answer strongly, but couldn't find any words besides, "we are so happy there".
Later, at the beach, as I was taking these photographs and playing with the seaweed, I was reminded that this beach is so unlike that beach and that each and every time we go to the shore, there's something new to see. A different day on which we notice something very different. Perhaps today it will be starfish in the tide pools, or a seal bobbing along the shoreline. Or maybe just the bliss of drippy sandcastles and gentle waves. Or a book and some yarn in the warm sun.
No pocket of shore is the same - no patch of forest is either once you know it well enough. And that's really what it's about for me when I find ourselves returning to the same spots so often - knowing a place. My children talk about the beaches that we frequent not always by their names, but by the sand, rock and seaweed which is there. When I hear this talk, I am filled with gratitude and comforted by the knowledge that they have Places on the Earth which they truly 'know' with all of their hearts and souls. And I hope, that wherever they go and wherever they are in their future days of life beyond my arms, they are able to summon the memory of these places within their hearts - and find the peace, comfort, and joy that I see them finding there now.
Wherever your travels take you today, I hope you see something in a new and wonderful way!