This is my place

This is my place, I thought. I closed my eyes, and deeply inhaled the salty air. It wasn’t just the smell of the sea, it was the smell of dead crustations and drying seaweed deep in the sand dunes behind me, smell of fading moonlight and coming sun, it was the lingering smell of various suntan lotion soaked into the sand from the daytime beach goers. I prefer to go in the early morning, about a half hour before sunrise. It is peaceful, no one around but a few surfers in the water trying to catch an early go at things. I like to breathe in the array of scents that the ocean has to offer, dig my toes in the sand and stroll the beach looking for sand dollars, or maybe a few uninhabited shells. The few people you see jogging every now and then all have an ipod, I don’t need anything but the low roar of the water roaring into a crest and roll into the shore and the grinding sound of the water slowly pulling more sand out into the water. Even the sound of the seagulls fighting each other over the morning catch brings peace to my heart. The graying light is fading lighter by the minute into a slow orange light. The true reward of coming to the beach early is the sunrise over a mirror calm bay. As soon as the sun peeks up over the horizon, the whole bay explodes with colors of the sunrise with only the undertones of the deep blue ocean while the sky above is still dark. It’s as if the light is chasing the darkness back to the depths of the ocean. And for the next half hour, you get to see a full color spectrum of sky and sea. Oranges, pinks, yellows, purples, blues, greens, and brilliant baby blue soak the darkness out of the sky. Sunrise used to scare me when I was younger, the thought of brilliant light on one side, and the dark to the other didn’t sit very well with me. Fear of the unknown. Yet as I grew older, the sunrise is more breathtaking each time you see it. The ocean is raw and beautiful all on its own, no street lamps, no restaurants, no billboards, no houses or cars, pure tranquility at its best.  Yes, this is my place.