Life Lessons from the Sea #1: Slow down and soak it in

Racing to the Sea

I’ve always been a water bug. Maybe it’s because I’m a Pisces. Maybe it’s just because. My earliest memories involve running through sprinklers, swimming in Lake Cumberland, and playing with my family at the pool. 

As a youth, I vowed never to give in to swimsuit-a-phobia. I swore not to miss out just because I didn’t like how I looked in my suit. I’ll admit, that vow’s been tested a time or two in my adult years.Still, I trek to the pond, the pool, the lake whenever time allows. Sometimes I slog barefoot through streams, even when there’s a bridge. But the best swim of all is in the ocean. 

During grad school, my hubby and I lived twenty minutes from the Pacific. We spent as much time there as possible, acquainting our first born with the joys of the sea. She took to it quickly. When she first learned to walk, she’d drop to her knees as soon as we reached the beach. Crawling got her to the water faster.

Her little hiney would bounce up and down as she crawled, full speed, toward the crashing waves. That eagerness for adventure perfectly characterizes her. Over the next few years, we enjoyed countless hours near the ocean, skipping through the water, shrieking and laughing when it caught us by surprise. 

In my memory, our time seaside stands still. That’s one of the beauties of the sea, a slowing of life, so that you can truly take in its value and its beauty.

Since then, each of our children has experienced the ocean, at least briefly, despite living in landlocked Oklahoma. When we can’t manage to get away, we savor sunsets over Sailboat Bridge or watch a sliver of lake glitter through our back window.

So, to celebrate my love for all things sea-related, I’m beginning a blog series, to be posted each Friday—Life Lessons from the Sea.

I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do. 

What are some of your favorite water-related memories?