winter sea

View from our room Saturday

We ended up at the WorkMark in Long Beach on Friday night, by happenstance. IZ’s sister’s brother-in-law rents out several condos every year, and the guests they were expecting couldn’t make it. So we had a chance to stay over night and visit with family. It was a short, but really lovely get away. We were gone just under 24 hours, but it was therapeutic to walk beach and absorb everything the ocean gives. Salt and sand and sound, beyond the alliteration, it’s soothing.

We live so close to the beach, but we don’t go as often as I would like. Time is like that, it gets away from you. And I’m feeling the passage of time keenly these days. Part of it is this new pace of life. Being away from home 10+ hours a day is an adjustment! Part of it is all the changes in the past year and the changes on the horizon. It’s a lot to absorb. A lot to process.

So a getaway, even for a night, is a good reminder that taking some time to unwind is important. Even if just to slow down the pace– not necessary of what must be done, as much as just how I experience it. Breathing is a good thing. Breathing deeply even better.

An aside:

Sophie died a year ago, on January 23. And when I got home from the beach Saturday afternoon, Facebook had fished up this photo from 6 years ago. We had a habit of going to the beach in January with her if the weather would hold. Less people on the beach meant less dogs for her to get riled up by. And she loved the beach. She was happy there.

cannonbeach2