It Came Upon Me Wave On Wave

By now you should all know that I live near the ocean, and more importantly, you should know that I HEART the ocean. Heart, heart, heart!

Yesterday was an anxiety filled day...nothing too major, but some lingering stress from the night before just kept brewing and brewing. I figured that once I got out of work, instead of emotional eating which is my most favorite past time, that I'd try something more productive and go for a walk. (Hello, going to see Kenny in 6 weeks...need to lose some pounds!)

With the mood that I was in I feared that I might be like Forrest Gump and keep on running and running, (except in my case it would walking and walking, because right about now if I ran too far I'd have a heart attack) so before leaving I set a limit for myself. I decided that I'd walk to the beach that is directly to the East of my house (yes, there is also a beach directly to the West of my house!!) and back and that surely a trip to the ocean would cure everything! And I was right!

Ok, so I set out on my walk, iPod in hand, and sorry to all of the bikers that, in passing, got to hear my stressed out versions of Kenny's island music. (Side note: do yourself a favor and buy this cd. Even if you're not a country music fan, this cd is a must have. Kenny wrote all of the songs about stories and people that he's met during his time spent in the islands. The music is amamzing and has the ability to take me away to a different world in an instant.)




So after walking for a bit (and a brief attempt at running) I arrived at the beach...the sun was just starting to set, and there must have been 150 people at the beach. There were over 50 people in the water surfing (I counted) as well as many locals playing ball with their dogs, frisbee with their buddies, and I even noticed one lady who was laying out (at 7:30pm??). Anyhoo, I approached the water while still listening to my iPod, and if you know me at all, you know that the ocean and the iPod are my two favorite things, so at this moment, my stress started to slowly fade. I stood there for a while taking in deep breaths of ocean air and letting them out slowly while staring into the ocean as far as my eyes could see. This is the beach that I was at:





Although I was starting to feel a lot better, it wasn't until I walked into the ocean that I felt completely whole again. I walked right in, sneakers and all, and my feet played and danced in that ocean for the next few minutes. Who needs therapy when there's an ocean nearby? Miss Cupcake summed it up best when she said 'it's funny how something so illogical can feel so right.' Normally I would have whined and cried about having wet, spongy shoes and socks and a 20 minute walk ahead of me, but last night, it was the best feeling in the world.

So as I breathed in the last few breaths of ocean air for the evening, I exhaled and let all of my stress leave with it. It was an awesome feeling. And then me and my wet feet started the journey home, passing all of the quaint little beach houses along the way. I smiled, I sang, I inhaled fresh, clean air, and my happy, wet feet danced the whole way home.