Salt and seaweed and strength

My senior year of college, I got to return to my childhood spring break spot with my family

I was five years old the first time these waves beckoned

and I jumped in fully clothed

in that moment, without knowing, I buried a piece of myself on this beach

a sliver that still soaks through the sand to warm my feet

I find solace in the sameness

my whole life has changed, but this ocean is exactly as I left it

to come back, year after year, and collapse into familiar bliss

it’s a beautiful thing in the midst of life’s twists

and though three years have passed this time instead of just one

I’m amazed at the way my heart knows the shore’s soul

I am grounded in the patterns etched by the vast tides

the fierceness of the waves reminds me I once learned to fly

so I sit on a beach I know inside and out

my scrawled handwriting has stayed the same, too

and the sun sinks, my heart sings, the horizon bleeds

I breathe in salt and seaweed and strength

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