Breakfast at the Ritz
I left for the beach at 7:00. I wasn’t going to swim this morning but it was just too beautiful not to. On my walk with my dog, I can tell that the waves are small. The Capistrano buoy says the water is 68. Getting cooler but still very comfortable. The surf forecaster warns surfers that they may want to wear a wetsuit today. I’m not having any of that. I guess it’s different when you are sitting on a surfboard and exposed to the breeze but it sure feels pretty nice here.
I park my car and see the same swimmers that I normally see on Sunday preparing to set out. I’m in a bit of a rush so I don’t say hi but head straight for the stairs. On the beach, the tide is on the lower end. The shadow from the bluff dominates the sand and the sky is largely blue but lots of super pretty clouds giving it texture. To the west is what looks like a big fog bank but it might just be the receding marine layer. Hard to say but I’m not going to concern myself with it.
The water feels nice. Even with the lower sub-70 temp it still feels the same kind of comfortable it has been for the past several days. I get in the water and start swimming north. It feels great here. I don’t know what is happening at the Capistrano buoy but I am pretty sure we are north of 70 over here. It is just absolutely super nice. I swear that if there was some law that said everybody within 3 miles of the beach had to get in the water yesterday, then I bet at least half of them would voluntarily come back today. Don’t people realize how amazing this is? It feels great and it looks great!
As I swim in front of Niguel Shores just south of the Ritz, I can see the sun just above the bluff and it is spectacular. Even though I swim north facing away from the sun and towards the horizon, I can sense things getting brighter. The surface of the water becomes electric. I make it past the Ritz and the bluff is just a dark silhouette beneath the rising sun.
Today I am thinking about a talk I am giving on Sunday. It will largely be a repeat of the talk I gave at the UU church last week but I have more time and I might want to talk a little about Jesus. It is a Christian group and I feel like I have some things to say about that. What I have to say is probably not your traditional church talk. It is from my personal experience and unique perspective. This is a pretty open minded group but I want to be respectful. I want to be able to speak my own truth that might be different from their truth and maybe broaden their field of vision. I know that I love being on the other side of those kind of talks.
So what would I say about Jesus? I might say that he baffles me. I might say that it is difficult to parse the Jesus of my experience from the Jesus that other people talk about. I might say that an encounter with Jesus leaves me wanting more. I might say that I have seen and felt Jesus on the water. I might mention how I have wrestled with him and told him to leave me alone. I might say that he never ever would leave me alone or anyone else. He is always here and everywhere.
As I pass the Ritz, I notice something that I have never noticed before out here. I smell breakfast. It is subtle but certain. It’s eggs and maybe bacon and potatoes and bell peppers. I wonder if it is coming from a house or the Ritz or maybe the Waldorf? It’s all somewhat amusing and not what I expected way out here offshore.
I get to the farthest northern point of the swim and then start to swim back. Everything out here is so delightful. The warm water and the smell of breakfast makes this feel like some kind of tropical resort. It’s hard to believe that I live right here. I think having breakfast at the Ritz might be a fun thing to do. It might be especially fun with Tracey. Then again, I can think of many things that would be especially fun with Tracey. She is a very fun person.
