Rhythmic Like Breath

Ok. I’m ready to do this again. I get up this morning and I think this is the first time I have actually felt cool (not cold) since moving here on August 1st. The Capistrano buoy water temperature report is down 2 degrees at 75. Not too shabby. By the time I get to the beach parking lot a little after 8:30, it feels warm out and extremely pleasant.

I walk down the stairs and when I get to the beach, I actually think there is more sand than what I saw yesterday. Things are constantly changing here and that’s one of the things I love so much about the beach. There are so many things about the beach and the water and the waves and the horizon that reflect our lives back to us. One day all seems lost and desolate and on the next we are on the mend.

Waves are very similar to yesterday: small and breaking right on the edge of the shore as they spit out fist sized rocks. It’s an easier walk to my starting point today with more sand and less cobble. I walk into the water and try to get past the violent first few feet as soon as I can and then start swimming. As expected, this water feels very nice. There are some spots that feel very cool. I wonder just how cool they are - maybe 72? At what point will 70 degrees be too cold? These are the things I am afraid of, because some day it will be colder than 70 degrees.

I am swimming south today and I can feel the water moving. It is hard to tell if it is moving with me or against me, but I like it. It’s rhythmic like breath. This is another thing I love about the beach. It actually breaths. Just shut your eyes and you can hear it. Get in the water and you can feel it.

The swim seems to progress quickly. It’s just so beautiful out here. The surface of the water looks so richly blue today as the sun falls upon it. I just want to completely enjoy these moments here. I don’t want to reach for any other experience. Where could I end up if I utterly savored these moments without trying to find the next big thing? Where could these moments be guiding me? Can I let them guide me without losing interest and looking around for that something else. What if I could remove the elseness from my life? What if I could just keep following this one thread forever and ever and ever?

Towards the end of the swim I arrive at the last remaining buoy here. I am about 40 feet inland of it and I look away to the north because it looks amazing and then I look back at the buoy and notice that a pelican has come to lounge on the water. I want the pelican to get closer to the buoy so I can get a better picture but I know that is not going to happen. That pelican is just going to sit where it is going to sit.