The moment my bare feet touch the warm sand my worries drift away like the sun chasing storm clouds over the horizon; Each step carries me further from my troubles and closer to those feelings left suppressed within through the stress and concern of the real world. Here, there is no real world; Here there is simply me, what is within, and my immediate surroundings which help me reach them. It is enough. Right now, it is everything.
The sun warms my back and the cooling breeze caresses my face tempting me this way...No that...It doesn't matter though, no matter which way I decide to go, I will get to my destination eventually because my destination is within me, and my journey, the steps I will take just the conduit.
My mind registers familiar things as I walk; The difference in temperature of the wet sand opposed to the dry, the way the birds wheel overhead calling one another and that driftwood tree where I've spent many hours contemplating and considering weighty matters, and sitting vacant-minded connecting with myself and the world around me. The respite tree I call it, for it offers me respite from society, and from my own mind sometimes.
As I walk the soundtrack plays, an ever-present white-noise that adds a counterpoint to my steps and an essential element to my process. It is music so pure and unadulterated, simple genius. It is, of course, the ocean that offers the soundtrack; The endless motion and movement of nature in its purest form rivalling any music humankind could create.
I walk, apart from society, but so connected with the world that matters and the further I go the closer I become to my central point; That place from which the true me can emerge, and hide if necessary.
I must return to society of course, a small beach-hut in the tree-line isn't my reality just yet, the real world will pull me back. But for a moment, a brief interlude I am alone with the world, I am with myself and I am content.
Photo by Sean Oulashin on Unsplash