The Sun Shines Bright

I woke up with a start yesterday and felt so refreshed and ready to start my day that I was positive that I'd missed it. It was similar to the way that characters in movies and tv shows wake up; one moment they're asleep, the next they're awake, and moments after that they are up brushing their teeth ad getting dressed, completely lucid. Up until this morning, I didn't actually believe that kind of waking up experience actually existed; I just filed it neatly away in the category of Things That Are Portrayed in the Media But Are in All Actuality Urban Myths alongside short lines in the post office, having all green lights when you're in a hurry, and having a handsome stranger run into you, knocking all of the things in your hands to the floor, and having that soul mate connection moment when your eyes meet as you clean up the mess.

All of you sneaky readers have probably skipped over all this highfalutin mumbo jumbo and are thinking "Wait...positive that you'd missed what?" I was afraid that I'd missed this:

    

It was breathtaking, to say the very least. I had to walk a ways to find a place where the sunrise would be visible, but it was well worth it. As I walked down the beach, wind blowing through my hair, I let myself believe that I looked like Vanessa from The Little Mermaid making her dramatic entrance, minus the voice from a mermaid in a shell around my neck. In all actuality, I was a bedheaded, sloppy mess in shorts and a t-shirt, but the ocean has this way of making life feel more romantic and magical than it really is, even at 5:30 in the morning. 

Honestly, the magic of the beach is overwhelming for me. Someday I will walk along the shore at sunset in a flowing sundress, hand-in-hand with the love of my life. Ridiculously cliche? Absolutely. Would I have it any other way? Absolutely not. The beach makes me believe in life and love and miracles. It makes me feel connected to the earth and to the people around me. I could sit on the sand and watch the waves crash against the shoreline for hours on end and just think, feel, and be inspired. 

I think that if I lived near a beach, I wouldn't have such a deep, almost spiritual connection with the ocean. So as much as I am loving this vacation, a part of me will be glad to return to my Kentucky home and let all these memories incubate for a while until the sea calls me back again.