Sandcastles

Even though I’ve moved away and don’t visit much anymore, the beach always holds a special place in my heart.

After hour long spurts of running around and throwing myself at waves, the feeling of the cold sand shaded by our tents was always welcome.

I was younger then, obviously, and I took a lot of that for granted.

I never realized until I got older that food always tasted better on the beach.

Iced water was always that much more crisp.

French fries from nearby bars were always a delicacy to behold.

And I loved building sandcastles.

I was always ecstatic if I managed to carve out a convincing window in those castles.

Let’s be honest, thinking about it now, they were more akin to sand mounds with less-than-impressive moats.

Regardless, to younger me, they were the grandest of castles, and who knew what was lurking in those moats!

I was the kid who never learned her lesson when the waves got greedy and destroyed her castle.

I was plagued by a stubborn force of determination.

“You don’t get it, the castle needs to have a perfect oceanfront view!”

So, I would try again.

Once things were starting to come together, a wave would begin to creep around, stalking the empire that had so quickly built itself back up.

The waves were always greedy.

No matter how much I tried, the outcome was always the same.

Even if I don’t build castles from sand these days, I still build castles.

And even if there are no saltwater waves to bring them down, they still show up in other forms.

The waves will always be greedy.

The outcome is always the same, and we know this.

Yet we still build sandcastles.