New friends and feather kites

Magic days on Kalaloch Beach in Olympic National Park

Parked in our campground, the window on Mike’s side of the bed framed a view of Kalaloch Beach with sand bar waves rolling in that were good enough to surf. This famous location is a pristine stretch of Washington forever bounded by piles of perfectly formed, oblong stones, and littered with giant silvery dinosaur-bone driftwood.

Lying in bed, my head propped on a pillow so I could see the ocean, my visual frame was soothed by aqua waves sparkling with sunshine that we hadn’t seen in days of overcast weather. The camper was filled with the music of the sea, as if it were a very large shell held up to my ear... And there was nowhere I would rather have been in all the world than right there. 

That is a choice for all of us at any time: to fully enter a present moment and occupy it with all of ourselves; and when we do, gratitude is a natural response.

I shut my eyes, and thanksgiving transmuted to joy, then to rest as I fell asleep.