Come in! Come in!

"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a Hope-er, a Pray-er, a Magic Bean buyer; if you're a pretender, come sit by my fire. For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!" -- Shel Silverstein

Friday, August 12, 2011

Life's a beach

Three Rehoboth Beach Bums
It's been really wonderful having house guests here - especially two that are so absolutely undemanding. They didn't want to "see the sights" and didn't come with a check list of "must do's".

I didn't spend hardly any time in the car, shuttling them here and there as I feared I might.

We've just mostly sat around jawin', is all. On my deck. Around the table. At the beach.

Telling stories and laughing and laughing and laughing.

Oh, and drinking some mighty fine wine and being introduced to Hudson Bourbon.

Well, okay. I've cooked every night, but heck, I love doing that. That was a real joy. That they were so appreciative made it even more enjoyable.

Jon left yesterday. Maria leaves in about 45 minutes.

Theo and I are really going to miss them both.

I was thinking just this morning about how quickly I've forgotten that this was once our "vacation" home. Now it's our "home-home" - and Theo's "forever home" - where other people come to visit us and take their vacations.

That means, I think, that somewhere in the past few months I've quietly - almost silently - made the transition from Big City Girl to a full-fledged resident of Lower Slower Delaware.

I don't know when that happened, exactly. I only know that it has.

Life is not always a 'day at the beach'. Tragedies, sadness, disappointments, and frustrations never really take a vacation. They follow along wherever humans go or live or move or have their being, without regard to the beauty or ugliness of the surrounding environs.

I'll say this much: So far, it's a whole lot easier to deal with the occasional bad stuff, somehow, when you live in the midst of such natural beauty.

Because, people want to come and visit and vacation with you.

And, that's the best part of all.

5 comments:

Kirkepiscatoid said...

Well, I have been sooooooo appreciative that you opened up your home--yes, HOME--to us. Felt like a home to me!

But I am going to sooooooo get the "philanderer" look from Boomer and Little Eddie when I get home...

Anonymous said...

I have always subscribed to the view that life is a Beach!

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

Thanks for your visit, Kirke. I feel like I have a sister I never met.

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

Ah, wit is in the DNA of the English!

Will J said...

Pssst....let you in on a little secret...human beings were made to live at the beach. The story of the fall from grace was that someone thought that they knew better and turned inland. We have been paying the price ever since (GPS notwithstanding).

Thank you for sharing this story. Although circumstances will prevent me from going to the beach this year, I love the reminder of how, at the beach, time slows down and we open ourselves to creation - the waves, the pelicans, the clouds - and each other.