And Now the Beach

When Ev was a small fry, we had the enviable luck to have lived on the Outer Banks. Now, while it wasn't our favorite place to live - none of that had anything to do with the beach.
We loved the beach. We went nearly every day, year round.
I loved taking Ev there and watching her mind get blown time and time again. I think having kids at the beach is healthy. Not as in "getting Vit D" or "fresh air" but, all of it. The air, the sun, the wide open space, the water, the sounds, the big birds swooping above, the little shore birds darting back and forth, the smells, the dirt and grit, the cerebellum work out they get from walking in that sand. It's healthy in a way that not only post-insitutionalized children need, all children need it. The air, the freedom, the experience of being there.
It's healthy for the mind and the soul.
Even as adults we remember this. It's not a coincidence that tired, overworked, stressed out adults retreat to the ocean when they can. We long for it deep in out hearts and minds, that peace the ocean brings. That way you feel when you stand on the shore and take in all of that water, swirling and moving, teaming with life and vitality. The in your face reminder that your troubles in life will pass. That we are small as individuals but, as a whole we are a part of something big and grand and singular in the Universe.
And so every day I would pack my little wounded bird of a daughter up and we would head to where the ocean meets the land. We would go for the fun of it, we would go because we could, we would go to find ourselves.
And now I have another little heart in my charge and I find myself missing the ocean and all of Her help.
But The Ocean has sisters.
When you can't get to the Ocean?
Find a Lake.

 Let your son stand in the strong arms of his Papa as the Lake whispers in and tickles his feet. Watch him dig in the sand and get really dirty. Let him watch and hold out his little arm as he holds a discourse on the things he is seeing.
And know that he is healing and having fun and just...being.