Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day, Marian


















Traveling is a state of mind. We don't need to go far, no need to pack a bag and fly away, or go down the road less traveled...we can sit quietly in the early morning light, as I did today, and travel to a place in my heart that brings me peace.  It is Mother's Day after all, so here I sit in the peace of remembering my mother who's been gone from this physical world for seven years now.
The blue of her eyes..a hue that I can't quite explain..just the hint of a smile there..voiceless now, unless I go back further in my travels to an earlier time in my life. Her small, aged hand and graceful fingers in mine. How immensely comforting this is, this visit to a place in my heart. The space between us is smaller somehow...timeless. My mother's voice, wisdom and unconditional love travel with me, guiding me along the twists, turns, and adventures...wherever I go.

She would always say that my sister and I were her, "gifts from the sea"...one daughter risen out of the ocean..one of beauty and love, and the other daughter..found "under a seashell".. washed ashore with the tide, at dawn's first light. 

She who loved the ocean, longed to be nearby.. always, and in the end, so she was.









"...simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid, each cycle of the wave is valid, each cycle of a relationship is valid. And my shells? I can sweep them all in to my pocket. They are only there to remind me that the sea recedes and returns eternally."
                                                                          ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh, " Gift from the Sea"













Mom's Lipstick

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Surfer Boys

Go strip off your clothes that are a nuisance in this mellow clime. Get in and wrestle with the sea; wing your heels with the skill and power that reside in you, hit the sea's breakers, master them, and ride upon their backs as a king should. - Jack London 


This girl traveled to the North Shore of Oahu... if I close my eyes and just sit, I can go back there. 


Click on images to enlarge
Sitting, feet completely buried in the coarse, cool sand.  A fine mist of rain cools things down a bit..clouds came and went.  This surfer guy walks past us and smiles, a local guy I think.  He sits nearby, watching the surf, just as we were.  I wondered what he was thinking, this surfer guy and his board. Waiting for the right time to get out there.  Funny thing was, I was imagining what it might be like if I was out there, a surfer girl.  I was thinking of those long summer days, so long ago.. sun kissed, beach loving, bikini clad, So Cal girl I once was.  Not thinking twice about challenging the ocean and it's power for a ride in the surf.  

I could almost touch a day much like this one, it being so real in my mind. 

Between glimpses of local boys and their boards falling and rising with the beat of the waves in turquoise surf, I'd fall back in to the dream of those beach days...catching a wave, no board needed, riding...fast! a powerful force of each mounting crescent...sometimes the perfect ride, sometimes tumbling, rolling...sometimes hitting bottom and walking dazed, but smiling to the shore.  

Back here, toes in the sand, I watch the surfer guy next to us grab his board and head out.  

I remember now, what it was...The blue of water and sky..the rhythmic pull of water crashing on the shore...I'm pretty sure that's why I came here to live out a wild adventure at 19. Just as these surfer boys rode these wild waves, small by Waimea standards, it was still a good show for us who came here to watch and dream.



Waimea, North Shore,  Sunset Beach "Pipeline"





























































































Well I hope you understand, I just had to go back to the Island...


                                                             ~Leon Russell