Things I Can't Say

Tips and Tales from an Introverted Mom

The Waves

I take a deep breath and breathe in the smells of the sea.

I close my eyes and listen to the waves crashing.

It’s peaceful.  The ocean calms me, centers me. Puts life in perspective.

When I was a teenager, I always wanted to escape to the beach.  Not to party or flirt with boys. But to walk along the shore and have the noise from the waves drown out the noise in my head.

Water gives life.  It heals.  It promises new beginnings.

It was the draw of the sea that caused me to move to this place more than ten years ago. Knowing nothing else about it, but living on an inlet, just a few minutes from the ocean, was a draw for me.

The water has always pulled me, called me.

And led to the life I have now.

When I thought my heart was beyond broken, I came back to the sea to be healed by its waves.  Looking out at its vastness and realizing just how small, how much of a speck my problems were.

The waves rolling in gave me a new hope, a reminder that things are constantly changing.

It was beside the ocean that my husband proposed, starting our life together.

So many memories of the water: both happy and sad, beginnings and endings, but all muted by the sound of the waves, softening the emotions and reminding me that new beginnings are always possible.

Comments

  1. The beach is a place of deep memories.

    My husband proposed to me there too. That is the most precious memory.

  2. I wish so much that we lived closer to water. There's something about a walk on the beach that makes a great day perfect and a bad day a little better.

  3. Beautiful!!! as a water person, I can picture the sound of the waves and am right there with you through every word.

  4. isn't that so true about the beach? Whenever I walk on the beach I immediately feel calm…
    and a beach proposal? how romantic, lucky!

  6. I love the water. There is something healing about being near it.

    We don't live close enough to the beach to relax near, but I do get to spend many weekends at the lake.

  7. Love it…lucky girl to leave so close to the water. I agree its so calming and peaceful 🙂

  8. I have a similar relationship with the water. It's surrounded me all my life, even though I'm in the midwest. We vacationed in North Carolina growing up, and Nags Head is still my favorite place to simply be.

    I have such a connection to water that I picked our new house based on the fact that it faces the subdivisions man made lake. Not at all the same, but it will do. It still holds life and gives a great backdrop for an evening walk.

  9. So needed to hear that after the week I've had. Now I want to head down to the park and sit and listen to the waves crashing up on the rocks. Beautifully written. Thank you. 🙂

  10. I love the beach. Claire keeps asking to go to the beach. We can't go, yet because the beach is covered all in snow.

  11. I miss living near a beach…even as a teenager I was able to appreciate it. It's calming effects on me, it's vastness, it's ability to give life and to take life away…all of it.

  12. This is really beautiful. I agree with you. That sound is amazing. I love that you were proposed to on the beach. Tear. 🙂

  13. Isn't it amazing the natural images that reoccur in our lives? I love water, too- especially small lakes or ponds, but I think my central image is lightning.

    Water and lightning aren't really the best combination, now that I think of it…

  14. I love it! I think that you've done a great job!

    I love the beach and listening to the sound of the water as the waves crash. I don't live near the ocean but in Michigan we do have the great lakes and they're pretty close!

  15. Love this! I am posting a movie tomorrow of our weekend at the beach. Hope you'll stop by to check it out.

    Carol-the gardener

  16. Oddly enough I am not one of those love the ocean so much I wanna live by it people. I love to visit it, but not live near it and I did for several years in my youth. However taking my 30 year old husband one year and seeing HIS face at his first time to the ocean was priceless

  17. I love the ocean. It is soothing to me.

    You did great with this Shell! Stop second guessing yourself!

  18. I love the ocean too! Such a beautiful, calming force.

    And it is lovely that you can include it in so many memories!! 🙂

    Nice post, Shell!

  20. What a way to look at the ocean and it's waves.

    I don't live near the ocean but I love the sounds of the ocean.

  24. Lovely Shell, ebb and flow … like water 🙂
    We live at the beach, I love it early in the morning, as we walk onto it and we are the only one's there, its like new life to me, a new day …

  25. We live near the ocean too (although the Pacific is much larger than Long Island Sound on the CT shore, where I grew up). I always feel the tension melt away the minute I breathe in the ocean air. My kids feel the same way. They can dig in the sand for hours and stand at the edge of the water and throw shells in…it calms them immediately.

    I loved this post.

  26. Water in all its form is just so beautiful. This is a beautiful post. So reminiscing, it helps us to think of the times we shared with the sea.

  28. This was such a perfect prompt for you this week. I love your writing always. This was exceptionally poignant! Love you Beach Girl!

  29. Oh Shelll, what a gorgeous post. I feel this way about the ocean too. It has made so many times I my life better as I sorted my feelings. Thanks for sharing that with us. Happy Friday!!!

  30. Not a beach lover myself, but give me a good mountain stream and the smell of hemlock and I'm in a big HIGH!

    Came by to say that I saw you as spotlight on Theta Mom!! Very well deserved!!!

  33. I love the ocean and the beach. I've always wanted to live by the ocean. Great writing!

  35. The ocean and beach seem to be therapeutic for many people. There is something about the power of water.

    My husband proposed by water too (a lake)

    Visiting from RDC

  36. What a beautiful post!

    There really is something about the ocean. The fresh salty air for me is one of my favorite smells.

  37. YES!! This is exactly how I feel and actually is where my post stems from today – that healing quality. The way something so massive reminds you that you are so small. Beautiful

  38. The sea has always called to me. I still dream of sailing around the world and exploring the mysteries of the deep.

    This was beautiful.

  40. Shell, I love this post so much – I could read it again and again. I'm including it in my MOnster Likes tomorrow.

  41. Oh, great post! I'm so with you on this. I even love the ocean in the winter – when the waves are gray and looming. It just has a way of settling the soul to breathe the ocean and hear the tumbling, angry waters.

  42. Wonderful writing Shell. I could almost see, hear, and smell the ocean. The water is the perfect place for renewal.

  43. This was a beautifully written post, Shell. I love it. I could see you then (younger you, even though I didn't know her!) and now (although we've yet to meet!) and I could feel it. Beautiful.

  44. I feel the same call of the ocean, since I first laid eyes on it. Sadly, my life never led me to life next to it.

    You captured the soothing comfort of the ocean perfectly – the peace it can bring.

    Thank you.

  45. Shell, this is beautiful. You paint a picture with your words. I have never been to the ocean…someday I hope to experience it's beauty.

  46. Your post is so peaceful. You can almost hear the tide rolling in and out in this piece.

  47. I love reading personal narratives about the ocean. It reminds me to see what's pretty much in front of my face.

    I've never lived that far from the coast, but in truth, I'm not drawn to it, or maybe I take it for granted.

    I crave the mountains and the forest my sense of place and peace. So much so that I forget that the Atlantic is only twenty five miles away…

    Thanks for this!

  49. Shell,

    I absolutely adore the beach. You did a great job with this post of reminding me how important it is in my life as I read about it in YOUR life.

    The beach is such a soul place for me. I agree with your it also being a place of healing.

    This was lovely post on which to close my day. Thank you:~)

  50. I'm glad you did this. It is funny because as I was working on my Red Writing Hood post this week, I thought of you and that I hoped you would join in. I have read some of your posts that were more novel like in how you wrote them and I think you have some great talent!
    I loved this post. I love the ocean and would live on the beach if I could. I think listening to the waves and smelling the sea air is one of the most calming things ever. I'm glad you have something that can and has healed and calmed you!

  52. Lovely. I understand that connection to the water as well. It's amazing how we can connect to it and how it can change us.

  53. Sigh.

    So lovely, Shell. The ocean calms me, too, makes me feel small yet peaceful.

    Hubs proposed to me on a helicopter hovering over the ocean and we got married on the beach.

  54. Love time at the ocean. I don't go for the social scene, I go for peace. It's one of the few places I can start relaxing almost instantly. And as I read your piece, I began to do just that….you had me there! :>

  55. I find the ocean to be a transformative force, too. Really enjoyed this glimpse into your life. Thanks for visiting my TRDC post, too!

  56. I feel exactly the same way. Somehow when everything is wrong, the ocean can set it right.

  58. There is something that draws me to the ocean. The sounds of the water and waves just calms and mellows me, time gets lazy and I relax. I remember when I was about six months pregnant, Nathaniel had been kicking and kicking and kicking everyday all day and when we were at the beach he was pretty mellow the whole time. If Chris got transferred close to the beach instead of the four hours that we are now I would stay here forever and a day.

  61. That's a beautiful thought. That the water heels you when hurt and celebrates with you when happy. Well done.

  62. Great post! I can't imagine not living close to the ocean. It's such a peaceful place and I'm always able to clear my head when I'm there.

    visiting from TRDC

  63. You talked about the sounds of the ocean, it's like a dull roar that vibrates your soul. I forgot about that part. It's wonderful that you live next to it. I've always wanted to, some day.

  66. My favorite part: the recognition that our lives are smaller than the ocean, that our problems compared to the sand were outnumbered, outmatched by the vastness of the water.

    LOVED THIS, as I too love the ocean.

  67. The ocean has played a big part in my life, too, and my husband proposed on the beach as well. Except he's from the prairies and he didn't know about high tide so we ended up with a little less beach than he had planned 🙂

  68. Yay!! I loved seeing your badge among all the Red Dresses. You really showed me what the beach means to you. I wish everyone were lucky enough to find their perfect place.

    –The Drama Mama

  69. I am right there on the beach with you…except I'm the one flirting with boys 😉

  70. Wow loved this. The ocean calms me in the same way. It is a great place to think and reflect. A place to forget your troubles for a minute or too. You put it in words so much better than I could.

  71. I really love this because the sea has always done the same for me, given me calmness and a rest. I'm not lucky enough to live by it but that is a dream of mine.

  72. "The waves drown out the noise in my head."

    LOVE that. So true. Just left Crayon Wrangler's post about placing her daughter back in the water soon after her birth, to calm her. The ocean must speak to us on a basic level – the sound of the waves repeating the sound of our mother's heart?

    I totally get you and this.

  73. This is exactly how I feel about the beach…someday I will get out of this desert and be near the beach!

  74. Beautiful! I couldn't agree more. Water makes me feel the same way! I could never live far from the beach. Never! Great post, girl!