Return

The weather today feels perfect.  For five days I have enjoyed sunny skies and temperature in the upper 80’s - ideal for the trip the Atlantic shore I took this past weekend.  The Carolina coast offers beautiful beaches and family-friendly, uncrowded places to relax and play.  I return to this trip each year.    

Dictionary.com defines the verb return in its first entry as “to go or come back, as to a former place, position, or state.”

Vacationing with my family has evolved through stages of my adult life.  Accompanying my future husband fifteen years ago I attended his family beach trip as a guest.  I arrived with one small bag, slept separately, played board games, read on the beach.  Flash forward five years and the vacation involved being married, having a two year old and being profoundly pregnant.  I arrived with two suitcases, swim diapers, a portable crib, beach toys, kid friendly sunscreen, set bedtimes and early awakenings.  I scooped sand, hid the board games with small pieces, chased a toddler up and down with the flow of the waves, tried to stick to nap time, and fretted over how three and 8/9 people would all sleep in one room.  Advance five more years and the trip involved a car-top carrier to hold all the stuff needed for two adults, two kids and a third baby.  Several suitcases, boogie boards, beach toys, water shoes, and travel bed all had to go outside the car now because five people filled the inside.  The packing and the unpacking itself was an immense undertaking.  I never sat that year.  Hours passed getting little bodies SPF slathered to go to the beach and scrubbing them free of invasive sand twice a day, providing snacks and meals, keeping towels dry and toys from floating away.  Upon return I needed rest.

Another five year jump brings last weeks’ trip.  The luggage carrier atop the car remains as the five people still necessitate space but we each required one slight suitcase.  I carried one bag with a small collection of beach toys and sunscreen.  Everyone can pack and carry their own things.  All my children possess the sense not to plunge heedlessly into the waves thereby freeing me from my one foot tether.  They are happy to create sand structures with cousins instead of me.  I borrowed a chair and sat under my big hat with a book and read.  I felt the pleasure of the beach return. 

Coming Back

travel away to play by the sea, watch

nature’s vicissitudes be, shells sometimes

found whole although more often ground

multicolor amalgamated specs, sand flecks

flow marking each predictable tide low

or high, hardly recounting wondrous why
               

mighty mote-guarded castles construct

waves wash walls away as old day hassles

salt splashed eye sting, cleaned in teary cry

noon sun’s fireball fry and gritty breeze

brought to knees set free in walking back

cicadas sing the ocean rhythm in return