The Beach

Gentle breezes passing through in a pattern of their own, blowing with them, whiffs of the salty, endless blue. Soft, yet grainy, miniature pebbles of Earth sinking soundlessly under the weight of a pair of human feet. The constant sound of the deep blue crawling up the shoreline. Sky reflecting off the undulating surface, casting a serene glow any time of day. The beach truly is a magical place.

Walking along the shore is quite an interesting experience. The way the sand sinks under your weight, warm from sitting idly and baking in the afternoon sun, trickles ticklishly all over your feet as you walk. It is like having your feet tangled loosely in your blankets by the end of the night. Approaching the waves rushing in quickly to greet your toes with a quick nip of cold, the sand becomes like a very wet chunk of dirt, but not exactly mud like either. The sun reflecting across the ocean, warming you up, but the breeze keeping you cool throughout your stay, an ideal way to spend a summer afternoon.

A short walk across the shoreline leads to a cliff dotted with trees. Upon hiking the short rock, your eyes are set upon a new view of the sparkling sea. The wind blows harsher up here. No longer a breeze, it not only combs through your hair but tangles it slightly atop your head. The ground is filled with dust, the sand of a different texture than below, more coarse than the kind on the shore. There is a clearer sight of the sunlight reflecting blindingly across the horizon of the seemingly endless blue. In the distance, you can see some more cliffs lining the ocean. Wondering how many people might’ve seen this view before your family, you try capturing the image, memorizing every detail in your brain so that it might be printed onto a canvas someday.

The end of the day is a completely different experience than going to the beach in the morning or at night. It’s like suddenly everything’s changed, like the old beach has been sucked into a portal and replaced with a new beach. The breeze is cold now as the sun slips under the horizon and out of sight. The sun is gone, but there is still a small amount of light left, giving the sky a grey-ish look to it, like the color of the sky on a rainy day. There are not any clouds that block out the sky completely, just small, baby-sized clouds. There is no bright orange orb hanging in the sky to warm the ocean water so it’s almost as cold as rain on an autumn day.

As the evening drags on, stars, like tiny specks of glitter, begin to dot the sky, reflecting their tiny glows off the water. The moon, a crescent C, has shown itself. If you tilt your head at a certain angle you can make a face, two stars as eyes, and the moon as a mouth, the sky smiles back at you. The sand has cooled down as well, no longer too hot to walk barefoot on if not near a source of water. It seems the sand has gotten softer...or maybe it’s because the chill of the sand creates the illusion that it’s more comfortable than when the sun is beating down, baking the sand and your feet. A peaceful wind brought in by the sea, slowly casting a calming repetitiveness of the waves as they drag up the shore then slowly back down. The beach always seems to be the perfect place to clear a mind and enjoy the simplicities of life.