So last weekend we went to the beach with a couple of friends. It is amazing how just some sand, sun, and water can completely change your perspective and mood. I’d been going through a super depressed slump, both due to some personal things and because of the current political environment. Since I do want to be an Intelligence Analyst at some point, I figure I should do better about keeping up on news, but, man – reading news every day is so depressing! And facebook does not make it better! It like, dramafies everything (yes, yes I did just make that word up). So yeah, downhearted, depressed, didn’t even want to think about writing (More on writing, btw, at my soon to be public-ish blog: Once Upon a Story – you should go look at it to make me feel better about my page views).
Then, I got to the ocean. Oh, glorious sun, sand, waves, water – everything about the beach and ocean is just soothing, and magnificent, and calming and romantic. I swam in the ocean, laid in the sand, enjoyed the feel of the extremely strong sun on me, had ice cream and in general just forgot about the world’s political and moral issues.
But the best part, I think, was that night. Our friends had gotten a hotel on the beach (Yes, my husband and I, being cheapskates, er, *ahem, fiscally responsible?, found a hotel about 20 minutes away that was way cheaper), and after they put their baby to bed, we sat on the balcony and sipped various beverages and chatted quietly and looked out over the ocean. I forget, until I see it, how much I adore the ocean at night. Almost more than during the day. It just looks so . . . magical. Oh! I even wrote a poem on it! I forgot! I had thought my days of writing random poems were over because I didn’t have a free enough imagination anymore, and then it just suddenly worked. Not that it is good, by any means – it is awful, I am quite sure (some parts rhyme and others don’t) – but it was fun to write, so I will share it with you and then let you get back to your own lives.
Ode to the Ocean (How many times has THAT title been written?)
I should have known by looking over the sea
Never again would my heart and soul be free
The silvery moon wavering over the calm
Only served to further the charm
Oft I’d been told from far and wide
Of the beautiful but cruel mistress of the tide
And that all it took was one’s first glance
Over the vast and indescribable expanse
Your soul would sigh in romantic succumb
To the mysterious deep where the mermaids hum
A desire deep down undoubtedly lit
To never remove from shore or ship
I suddenly knew without thinking twice
Where I would always return, no matter the price
To this intimate, silent, yet resounding lair
That spoke your emotions, understood any despair
And no matter how many books, poems, or emotions
Try to capture the incredible magic of oceans
They will never quite be able to convey
The full majesty of the watery display
Forest Idylls 