Just something about the beach

Two days after my last day of school, I drove to College Park, MD, to collect my daughter and two granddaughters to spend 15 glorious days with me. Much of that time was spent on the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey, which was very nostalgic for me. To see my sweet little Lea romping on the same sand that her mama and uncle used to play on made me think about the eternal, yet changing nature of the shore. Yes, of course, I know it isn't literally the same sand - those grains are long gone with the wind or at the bottom of the ocean someplace near or far. And the steps we used to navigate have blessedly been replaced by a ramp that we can negotiate with the utility cart filled with toys, towels, and other necessities of life. But the ocean continuously rolls in, bringing shells and tiny sea creatures, and it creates a new landscape every ten or fifteen seconds. That is what I remember as a child, and as a young parent, and as the parent of suddenly independent young adults. I think of my dear late mother-in-law and father-in-law and how they so enjoyed having their offspring in this special place. I found myself watching Lea play with her cousins one day last week in Stone Harbor and mourning the great-grandparents she didn't get to know, thinking about how delighted they would be to see this next generation loving the beach.

There are other beaches, to be sure, some of which have huge advantages over Ocean City and Stone Harbor (less traffic, no beach fees, less density), and I've enjoyed and will enjoy spending time at those places. Myrtle Beach and Nags Head with another family when the kids were young were especially fun; Rehoboth and Assateague have their own charms. I long to go back to Acadia National Park beach in Maine and Cape Cod, despite the coldness of the surf.

As our lives change in so many ways, we realize that we can't have what we had twenty or so years ago. But we will always have the pictures and other memories to savor - and the eternity of the ocean. And I will always be grateful for that.