Homecoming

On Easter Sunday Chris and I had some downtime before we needed to be at the airport to head home. So, without a doubt, we headed to the beach. There's a quaint breakfast cafe in the Belvedere Hotel right on the boardwalk of VA Beach. We got a booth right by the window and this was our view.

Chris was commenting on how much the VA Beach boardwalk felt like Huntington Beach, CA, where he grew up. I had to admit, it did feel a bit different than the beaches I grew up going to in South Carolina, yet it's still the same ocean with the same warm water that I swam in as a girl. VA Beach has its own vibe, which seems to be a perfect blend of Chris's and my past. In a way, we both feel like we are coming home. He's got a surfing spot...or as good of a surfing spot as you can find on the east coast...

and I've got my grits again.

I think we're going to like this place.

When we walked through our new home for the first time, we entered through the garage. Right away, the same thing struck us: surfboard racks. Tons of them, hanging from the ceiling. From the beginning, Chris could start to envision us in that house. He could see us coming home from the beach, stowing our boards away in the garage, and rinsing our sandy feet off in the outside shower on our back patio. I love seeing my man's eyes light up like this. 

By the ocean, my surfing and sailing stud is like a boy again, full of adventure and passion and play. He's worked so very hard to get to this place, to finally be at this season of life where he can call the ocean home once again. 

So, this poem, this is for my man and for the new season of life we are about to plunge into together...

"Ocean" by Mary Oliver

I am in love with Ocean

lifting her thousands of white hats

in the chop of the storm,

or lying smooth and blue, the 

loveliest bed in the world.

In the personal life, there is

always grief more than enough,

a heart-load for each one of us

on the dusty road. I suppose

there is a reason for this, so I will be

patient, acquiescent. But I will live

nowhere except here, by Ocean, trusting

equally in all the blast and welcome

of her sorrowless, salt self.