Yesterday I took a little trip – back to the past - to a better time. Don’t you worry that we do this too much? I don’t, because I understand “why.”
I went back about 37 years to a time when I lived on Folly Beach, an island off the coast of Charleston, SC. I had a little beach shack, worked as a teacher in another county, travelled 45 minutes each way to work, was cold in the winter (very little heat in my shack), and absolutely had a wonderful time. That is why I went back there.
I live on the Gulf Coast now, as many of you know, but as beautiful as it is here, it is not the Atlantic Ocean. Oh, and let me tell you I was not born on the coast, I lived in Memphis on the mighty Mississippi River. But when I experienced that ocean I was hooked.
Well, yesterday, I went back there. It was to a Sunday routine that I loved. I bought day old bread on Saturday at a discount bakery (you remember those?) and drove on Sunday to the beach. I walked out to a groin in the water and sat, waiting. I put out some bread and the seagulls arrived – really they swarmed. I had them on top catching bread that I threw, I had brave ones come right up and take it out of my hands, and there was always that “mouth” who sat far away from me and made a lot noise. I would try to reach that bird with a pitch, but many times another seagull got it.
If I was lucky, and the tide was out, I would see dolphins feeding right off the coast, really close since the water crashed right at my feet. I felt closer to God that I ever did in a church.
Just visiting there yesterday (in my mind) gave me a peace I do not have now. That is why we go back. If you are like me, retired, not as fit as you used to be, and in a situation that is not really happy, you go back to a time that was happy and relive it.
We, as seniors, are lucky because we have so many years behind us that we can find a happy time to remember. Our youth are just foraging ahead and will create those moments. They will not know, at the time, that they will remember these days fondly in the future.
BUT, I am intent on still creating some special moments now so that I can remember them at some time in the future (perhaps in my 90’s). Will you join me?
I went back about 37 years to a time when I lived on Folly Beach, an island off the coast of Charleston, SC. I had a little beach shack, worked as a teacher in another county, travelled 45 minutes each way to work, was cold in the winter (very little heat in my shack), and absolutely had a wonderful time. That is why I went back there.
I live on the Gulf Coast now, as many of you know, but as beautiful as it is here, it is not the Atlantic Ocean. Oh, and let me tell you I was not born on the coast, I lived in Memphis on the mighty Mississippi River. But when I experienced that ocean I was hooked.
Well, yesterday, I went back there. It was to a Sunday routine that I loved. I bought day old bread on Saturday at a discount bakery (you remember those?) and drove on Sunday to the beach. I walked out to a groin in the water and sat, waiting. I put out some bread and the seagulls arrived – really they swarmed. I had them on top catching bread that I threw, I had brave ones come right up and take it out of my hands, and there was always that “mouth” who sat far away from me and made a lot noise. I would try to reach that bird with a pitch, but many times another seagull got it.
If I was lucky, and the tide was out, I would see dolphins feeding right off the coast, really close since the water crashed right at my feet. I felt closer to God that I ever did in a church.
Just visiting there yesterday (in my mind) gave me a peace I do not have now. That is why we go back. If you are like me, retired, not as fit as you used to be, and in a situation that is not really happy, you go back to a time that was happy and relive it.
We, as seniors, are lucky because we have so many years behind us that we can find a happy time to remember. Our youth are just foraging ahead and will create those moments. They will not know, at the time, that they will remember these days fondly in the future.
BUT, I am intent on still creating some special moments now so that I can remember them at some time in the future (perhaps in my 90’s). Will you join me?
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