Hope and Smiles

There’s something about sleeping next to the ocean that clears my mind and frees me from the world of worries I tend to carry. I woke up early and decided a walk a to visit the water was just what I needed. I took a quick shower, threw on some jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed my journal, and set out for some solitude in the wide open space. It was nice to think about a whole world waiting for me rather than one hanging over my head.

I walked until I found this beach where I could sit back and see nothing but water and a blue sky filled with the most amazing clouds. I sat with my thoughts and watched the clouds go by and listened to myself thinking. The clouds made music for me. I wrote a while in my journal. I walked a while down the beach. I stood a while just breathing in the open. I walked a while longer, pushing my feet into the wet sand like a little kid trying out a new pair of feet.

Just about the time I was thinking I might sit a spell. a sandy-haired young man walked up alongside me. I have no idea where he came from. He introduced himself. I introduced myself as well. He looked to be about my son’s age, maybe a little older. We walked a while down the beach. I told him I had been looking for a place to sit and watch the water. He said he knew a perfect spot and showed me that he did indeed.

We found ourselves talking under a palm tree watching marvelous clouds as they made shapes along the widest sky. We talked of life and things. The young man said he didn’t have a job. I said I didn’t have one either. I asked him where he found his hope. He said he found it in the air, and in the sand, and in the water, and in the faces of people like me who smiled back at him when he smiled at me.

That made me smile.

He asked me where I found hope. I said I found it inside my heart each time I was with someone who made me smile.
I didn’t think I said it out loud. I sure don’t remember saying it. I really think that I only thought it, wished it really. I wanted to find a marker so that I could make my way back to this beautiful, peaceful place where we had talked of hope and smiles.

As I had that thought, he pointed to the sky and smiled. The clouds had made a marker for me.

X marked the spot.

—me strauss Letting me be