Thanks, Caitlin Charlton, for taking all of us on a trip with your poem :)

God I miss the beach

God I need the beach

God I wanna go to the beach

*

I miss the feel of the wind on my face

I need the sadness of pretty shells cracking under my toes

I want the waves to wash away the bruises of my mind

*

I will not care if I see the sun

I just miss the taste of salt in the air

I will not care if it's foggy and cold

I just need to breath in-- where the ocean loves the shore

I will not care if there are people there

(Actually, I want to believe they're happy and free)

*

God I remember looking out on living blue horizons

(and aching in my soul)

(and being a Little Brother to all the Earth)

God I remember chasing scallop shells and mermaid scales

(and aching in my soul)

(and being a Big Brother to the burrowing crabs)

God I remember listening

--to the wind, to the shorebirds, to the waters--

(and thinking nothing at all)

(and I miss the silence)

*

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Author's note:

I never feel more at peace than when I'm at the ocean.

If my heart or soul are in torment, going to the beach feels like looking at the face of God. It's so healing.

I don't fish, I don't try to get a tan, I don't play frisbee or swim or go out on a boat. All I need is to be there.

I live close to several fresh water beaches, but they don't have the same rumble, nor the same taste.

I miss the salt of the ocean, and I'm too far away to go there as often as I need.

So I'm left in a perpetual state of wanting to go to the beach.

This morning I read a poem from Caitlin Charlton which took me there, if only for a moment.

Reading that poem was a joy and a comfort, but now that I've finished: my perpetual yearning for the peace of the beach is even more acute.

That need is always there, but sometimes it recedes from my conscious mind, just like the tide.

Today it's upfront and crystal clear.

Wish I could drop everything and take a road trip to the beach and then...

... just stay there forever.

But I can't, so the best I can do is read and write about it.

If you want the beach the same way I want the beach, then I want you to read Caitlin's poem. It might help you feel like you're there for just a moment: