Remember the Shore

After all these years, I still remember how it smelled. The salty air permeating my senses, leaving a lasting scent on my skin and a sweet taste in my mouth. I recall how the cliffs stood tall and proud as if they were defending a great fortress. I can still feel the sand between my toes, and can vision the tall reeds dancing in the wind. And I remember her, my Grandmother, a majestic presence, sitting there in the sand, me at her side drawing my dreams into the earth with a piece of drift wood.

We would talk and walk for hours along that beach, watching the tides come and go, gaze at the moon as it looked down upon its reflection in the lonely sea. It was a time of great contentment, of happiness. A time when wisdom and grace, melded with innocence and wonder, where two people separate by age, yet bonded by love, found peace in each other company.

Had I known that those last days at the shore would be the memories that I would return to in times of great agony and pain, I would have stayed there forever. Leaving that place was like saying goodbye to life itself, I knew I would be returning to a world where I could not understand the rules, or even thought I would ever know them. I remember the last words my Grandmother said to me as we turned our backs to the sea and walked towards the waiting car, She told me "You will always have this, it is a part of you this place, you only need to close your eyes and remember the shore when you want to find peace in your mind, and love in your heart."

I think she knew even then that my journey in this life would be filled with more agony than a child should bear. I think she knew the secrets that shamed my heart, and grabbed my innocence, and felt powerless to anything about it. She wanted to save my heart from all the evil that would touch my life. Little did she know, the lessons and hardship I would face in my life, would be the things that would lead me on a path to my own enlightenment, that savagery and cruelty, would touch me yes, but, because of the lessons and love I had learned through her, I would overcome them all, and make the world a better place for me, my children, my friends, and the one great love I ever knew.

If you want more, please let me know, and I'll direct you to where you can buy the book ;)