Monday, July 7, 2008

Our River

I crave the beach, smooth sand on a soft, gentle, sweet smelling lake, but I live on a river. I am growing to appreciate the river, for all its gentle calmness, tiny waterfalls, and beautiful sound that fills my house in the summertime and rushes beneath layers of thick ice in the winter. Today we played in the river at the end of a hot, sticky afternoon. The bottom is a mixture of big, flat rocks, and lower, sandy spots, nothing deeper than about two feet. There are eddies full of little round stones perfect for throwing, and there are many huge, craggy boulders strewn throughout, for climbing and playing king (or princess, if you are Aoife) of the castle. The children found sand and smeared it on their skin, rubbing it between their fingers, "washing" themselves with it. Just as I would do as a child, at the beach. They are finding it, the beauty of water and sand, and it's right there. I promise to use it.

(You know how you often don't attend to the things right around you? Like yearn to live on a lake, yet forget to swim in the river you live on? Yes, me, too. I promise to use it.)

1 comment:

Sara said...

I can understand your craving for the beach; I crave a beach too, but at the ocean. I love where I live now, but I miss the ocean terribly. I grew up on the coast, where I saw the ocean every day, felt the breeze off the water, smelled the salty air, and heard and felt the rhythm of the waves.

I take joy in the rivers and mountains here, but I will always need the ocean. It balances me. When everything in my life seems out of whack, sitting by the water recenters me somehow. I just got back from a few days at the coast, one at the beach really soaking in the energy and rhythm of the ocean, the rest with that refreshing air and glimpses of the vast, deep blue from every turn.

As I sit in my stuffy humid house, I wish I were there. I know that in the afternoon, the wind would shift and things would start to cool down--and if it didn't we'd go down to the beach late in the day and get some relief there.

I just got back and I'm longing again. But the river is just down the road if I need to cool off, my garden needs tending, and it is good to be home.