Quantum Shadow

I was really not sure if I was going to swim today. I have a ton of work to get done and I’d like to start early but I manage to wake up early at 5:15 and I feel rested. It’s as grey as can be, but so calm and I know the water will feel good and it will be smooth and something about this soft misty morning just makes me want to get in the water.

So I walk my dog at Pines Park and talk with this super delightful woman who was also walking her dog. One of the things I love about having a dog other than having a dog is talking to other people in the neighborhood who are walking their dogs. I’ve only been living here 6 months and there are a few people I always say hi to almost every day and while I would not say these are deep friendships, it’s just really nice.

At 7:30 I am out the door and on the way to the beach. It’s not foggy but the sky is extra moist today. As I approach the Strand parking lot, the hills in the background are shrouded in vaporous air. It’s very peaceful and I am happy I can call this place home. Once I reach the shore it’s just about as low as the tide will get today - a -0.7. Lots of sand and exposed rocks in the shallows.

I head out into the water and I’m making sure to shuffle my feet after seeing someone’s post yesterday who got stung by a sting ray at Doheny twenty minutes after someone else got stung. He posted a picture of the laceration and it did not look pretty (I still gave it a like). He said it registered a 15 on a pain scale of 1 to 10. No Thanks! Then after I am swimming for 10 minutes I realize that I am not wearing my shark anklet (that also deters sting rays) and I suddenly feel naked and exposed. I’ve had this thing for about a year now and I don’t think I have forgotten it yet. Well I’m not stopping now. I’ll just have to take my chances.

Boy the water is so nice. It does not look like the kind of morning that would make one want to jump in the ocean but I sure am glad that is what I did. Everything around me looks soft and gentle and still and quiet and peaceful and it is hard to imagine there is adversity in this world because I don’t see any of that from here. As I peer below the surface of the water, I see this beautiful rich blue at the top that blends with the browns and blacks on the ocean floor. The colors just run into one another and it is impossible to tell at what point did that blue become brown.

When I get to the south end of the beach, the low tide makes all the rocks stand tall and exposes many rocks that would normally be submerged. It looks like some kind of a rock graveyard. Gentle waves pass by and are met by a small pack of surfers further inshore.

I turn around and head north and let myself get lost in the soft colors both above and below the water. It is difficult to tell the difference. Above the water is just a blank canvas of lovely grey sky. I pause half way down the beach and a pair of cormorants are flying just over the water about a hundred feet offshore of me. There is something about the way they flap heir wings that have this strobing effect and they look sort of like glitches in the matrix. Are they real? Are we on the same timeline? Maybe those birds flew across this beach a thousand years ago and I’m just observing some kind of quantum shadow.

When I get to the north end of the beach just at the border where Strands becomes Salt Creek, there are lots of exposed rocks at the end of the point and medium sized waves being surfed on the other side. There are lots of tents and a PA system on the beach and there must be some kind of surfing event going on. They are talking about how great the surf is going to be tomorrow. It is true that a swell is supposed to build all day tomorrow and bring some good sized waves.

I look all around me and every direction looks just beautiful. The water’s surface is so smooth and there is a hush over everything. I finish up the swim and make sure to shuffle my feet as I make my way back to dry sand. I wonder if the sun will come out at all today and I really don’t care if it does because as far as I am concerned it is perfect just as it is.