Tomorrow is my birthday (happy birthday to whogivesashit--37 is about as exciting as not having to wipe after pooping, make you smile, but doesn’t even rise to the level of tweeting about it). Anyhow, tomorrow is my birthday and one of my kids will be away tomorrow, so a celebration was had yesterday. My kids took me to the beach and then to eat seafood on a dock where leftovers could be thrown to the hungry seagulls. (It was also fun that the name of the restaurant was Bill’s Seafood.)
It was an awesome day!
In recent years I’ve come to love the beach. I play with my kids. I teach them things. I swim. I relax. What I have learned is that the beach is a place of fun and relaxation, but also a place where activity makes it even more fun. Taking a walk and looking for shells can be more cardiovascular exercise than an hour on the treadmill and swimming for ten minutes in a bit of current is a whole different animal from laps at the gym. I love this. It’s active and relaxing.
For me, the availability of playful activity, which is also stimulating and strenuous is what make the beach a place I want to be.
I can sit in a chair and listen to the ball game at home. I can read in a comfortable chair in my living room. I can eat potato chips anywhere.
The beach is where my mind and heart race and my body relaxes.
The I get sent to the parking lot for forgotten a (insert item here). And I see people cruising for the best spot available in the lot. They are spending precious minute looking for a better spot than one where they have to walk 50 more feet. If they just parked and got out, they would smell the ocean and hear the gulls. It makes me sad to see, because the beach is not a slothful place to me. Rather, it is a place where the mind can be calm and the body can be active. Walking closer and closer to the sand over shimmering blacktop is part of the allure to me.
I love that there is no CNN or Fox News. There is only sun, sand and heat. And play. Play that is so hard that it make me wonder why I go to the gym. An hour of Frisbee with my kid on the beach is more work than two hours on a treadmill.
It’s true that I could walk at home and lay in the sun in my yard, but these things would label me an eccentric. Walking 1/2 a mile for an ice cream cone on the beach is what we do, walking a 1/2 mile for an ice cream cone at home make people wonder what happened to my car.
My goal for thirty-seven is to live every day like I’m at the beach.
No shirt, No shoes, No Problem.
If I can walk there, I will
If someone is in my way, step aside and let them pass.
Lick my fingers when I'm done eating.
Smile when kids are having fun, even when the kids are teenagers making obnoxious noises.
Exercise like it’s play.
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