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Sunday, September 5, 2021

The "Beach Therapy!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Pulled out the file folder from my filing cabinet that was labeled on the tattered tab...SXM 2021.  Actually, the other side of the tab was labeled...SXM 2020.  Started the folder when we had plans to travel to the island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten over a year ago.  Needless to say, we never made it to the island, since airports everywhere were closed to tourist travel.  So, 2020 was a bad year for sitting on a beautiful white beach with crystal-clear water with a slight blue tinge to it.  Oh yeah, I forgot the wide yellow beach umbrella that usually sits between Carol and I to shade us from the hot noon-day sun of the Caribbean.  As you might have guessed, we love beaches.  Seems the best therapy to cure all your ills is beach therapy.  Kids know that!  Is there a child anywhere in the world that doesn't like being on a white-sand beach?  They bury themselves in the sand, build moats and towers and watch as the sea claims their creations at day's end.  It's all part of the game...birth, beach, death and infinity!  And...to dislike the beach is to dislike life!  You've heard of beach therapy?  It's the best and cheapest type of therapy in the world.  The cure for just about everything is a sandy beach with beautiful clear blue waters lapping at the shoreline.  About the only drawbacks of heading to the beach are sunburn and sand where it doesn't belong.  The beach is not only calming, but makes you come alive.  For me, I feel like a kid all over again.  Where on earth can you bask in the sun, swim with God's creatures and still feel like a million dollars at the end of the day?  The Beach!  Now that's therapy!  I love going to the beach.  While there, you will find fat, thin, tall, short, perfect, not-so-perfect, pierced, tanned, burned, surfer, bimbo, geek, weirdo and just about everything in between.  Doesn't matter what you may be, for when you step on that sand...it's magical.  I can remember making visits to the beach as a child and finding it tough to have to leave when the sun began to fall off the side of the sky in the distance.  Then, as a teen I found an entirely new reason to head to the beach, but I'll stop at that.  After marriage and children, our beach trips were both calming and fun for the entire family.  Now, in retirement our beach days are, as I said, therapy for the soul.  But, you know...the beach isn't everything.  Take the ocean out of the equation and what do you have?  A desert!  And, what do people do with a desert?  They pour unbelievable amounts of water on it until a golf course begins sprouting.  And, that's why Carol and I need beach therapy.  

Beach Therapy!

Oh, how we long for our couple of weeks in St. Martin where the sand is as white as can be and the water is...well..clear as can be, but cooling to the warm body that steps into its rippling waves, searching for the small stand of seaweed that feels wonderful underfoot.  Dipping the body under the gentle waves relieves the heat that covers the skin and cools the soul.  Now, that's call BEACH THERAPY!  Want to join us?  We'll be the couple under the big yellow umbrella relaxing on the orange beach chairs who don't have a single care in the world.  The beach has stolen our bodies...and the sea...our souls!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - As it appears at present, we will not be making a trip in October as we had planned for over a half-year...no make that a year and a half.  Seems my back is acting up again and they can't work on it until the middle of October, due to so many old people having back problems.  I have notified our realtor in St. Martin and she is very understanding.  Told me to get better and she will find a place for us whenever we are ready.  Said, "the beach is waiting for you!"  Thank You Magali!
We'll be waiting for you on the beach! Sometime!!

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