Just be

Ok I lied. I had planned to be back on Monday. I wrote the Post on Monday. Lost the Internet on Monday. So that is that.

That sums up living in a small town in a nutshell. Never, EVER, make plans. Fix your hair, gale force winds. Wear cute shoes, the town will flood. Want a grilled cheese sandwich, out of bread. I am always totally surprised at the length this town will go to just to deny you the very thing you want the most.

Winter has descended on us with a vengeance. Entire trees are being tumbled in the ocean like toothpicks. Hail has beaten the crap out of the last remaining flowers. We have had our annual rainfall in one day. The high winds make the dogs yodel. We have started to go to bed at 2:45 pm since it is dark out.

The force that is Winter at the coast, is always such a surprise at the start. By November it will be an old hat but now it is terrifying and exciting. Watching the ocean that is so peaceful and friendly in the summer turn mean and vicious is a sight to behold. The waves pick up the boulders from the shore and fling them onto the road like small pebbles. The next wave picks them back up and hurls them into the grassy part of my yard. Trees tumble and roll like a surfer just learning to catch a wave. Sometimes the ocean deposits them straight up into the sand, as if to say "We are putting our Christmas Tree up early this year" and the next wave shouts "Oh no, not before Thanksgiving" and back into the frothy water goes the tree. Over and over this scenario is played.

Then a calmness comes, the clouds part, the moon and stars shine like sparkly diamonds in the sky, the ocean relaxes, the seagulls walk the shore glowing white from the moon and everyone relaxes.

The dogs sleep on the sofa peacefully. The parakeets have stopped fluttering around. I feel calm, safe, secure and lucky. Oh, so lucky.

Then BOOM, it all starts again.

On and on it goes. Day in and day out. I watch and wait, back and forth, calm and vicious, lows and highs. Just like my days. That is what the ocean teaches me, highs and lows, fight and rail against things, anything; relax and go with the flow, any flow. Just be.

For though it seems like it will always be this way, it won't. Better or worse, who knows, who cares. The here and now is pretty awesome.

Oh, lucky me!

Here I come again

Starting on Monday, I am back. New and Improved. Ok, not really but at least back.