Vast, Part 2

A week after I traveled to Montana my husband surprised us with a trip to the ocean. Since we are doing remote learning and my husband’s job can be done from anywhere, this seemed like a perfect magic getaway for our whole family. My kids have missed out on so much this year: sports, school, parties, awards, and more. We haven’t been able to travel or even go out to eat as a family. Going to the ocean for a few days was a great idea. We packed up and made the three-hour drive to a beautiful Airbnb. The home was perfect and large enough to fit everyone in their own beds and for everyone to do their school Zooms away from each other, with the added bonus that you could see the ocean from almost every window.

My most favorite place is the world is to be near water, whether it is rivers, the sound, the ocean. The sound of waves. The smell of the sea water. The vastness of looking out at the ocean that does not seem to end. Again, I was struck by how vast the place I was looking out at was. I love the ocean because it reminds of how small I am. It reminds me that I am not the center of everything. We live in the world where it is easy to start thinking of your own self-importance and to start feeling that everything is centered around you. In reality very little in the whole world is focused on you. There are so many things happening all around us, big important things. There are also small important things happening all around me. I can get so focused inward that I miss all the things happening big and small. The vastness of the ocean centers me back to what matters.

The panic and the nerves wash away in the wind and the sound of the waves. I know it is a temporary pause. I know The Restlessness will return but for a moment it all fades away into the vastness of the ocean.