Beach Kitty

One of my most favourite things is going out adventuring. Exploring places unknown. Since I didn't grow up on the Island like most of the people around here, every day can be a new experience. I say 'can be' because some days I'm tired and want to warm my weary bones over the fire of lethargy. That gave me a chuckle. It seems oxymoronic, doesn't it? Fires of lethargy. If anything, lethargy would be ice, I'd think. 

There's a sense of wonderment adventuring brings. The discovery of new things is rewarding, feeding your heart, soul and body. It's so simple too, just checking out beaches and picking up rocks, wading in the water. Some might think when you've seen one beach, you've seen them all. Not so. Each beach has new things to be discovered. The other day we went to Rathtrevor beach, and it was a fabulous one for finding funky pieces of drift wood.

Today, we went to Williams Beach. 

Lovely rocky, sandy expanse of land with the mountains standing watch as a backdrop. I even went in the water, it was that warm. Up to my thighs. Maybe a bit higher. I found a couple of sand dollars too! But, as it turns out, they are very fragile and I broke them. Clumsy fingers. Sadness. 

It's been an ongoing search to find one too. Last year, I was out with the Sidekick and found one washed up on shore, but it was a bit chipped and not so fancy looking. He reassured me we'd find out down at Rathtrevor but we didn't. Keep in mind, this was a year ago. And then, on Thursday when we were there, he found one, but it was alive. So, obviously, I didn't take it.

Some of you might be wondering how I knew it was alive since I am, by no means, a sand dollar expert. First, the colour, it was a dark purplish colour and all the ones I'd seen in gift shops had been white and the flower on the skeleton more prominent. After looking at the little guy and flipping it over, I noticed the fuzz on the underside of its body. Those fibres are what catch the microscopic food in the water, feeding the sand dollar and, if you look closely, you will see them moving. Cool, right? Now, if you find one that is bleached a light white colour and, when you turn it over, there are no fuzzy parts and you can see a hole in the middle, that's a dead one. 

And also, today there was a beach kitty. He showed up out of nowhere. Let me pet him and take a picture, then wander off to find another person to get pets from. 

Here I am with the beach kitty:

Anyhow, adventuring proved a success today, though I didn't find one piece of beach glass. What's up with that? Sometimes I wonder if people are ever as amazed by the world around them as I. Today I am sun-kissed, salty legged and blessed. 

The Little Kid Feeling

Remember way back when you were a little kid and you saw something knew and a feeling of wonderment and excitement passed over you. How you could stare up at a rainbow or watch lightning fork the sky and have to pause to take  it in simply because it left you breathless. How you used to lay down in the grass, look up at the limitless blue sky and form pictures from the clouds. Times when you would sit cross legged in the park and try to coax a squirrel over to you with a peanut.

Remember how those things were awesome and, for the fleeting time you spent there in the moment, you were happy and astonished. It's one of the best feelings. That total sense of awe at the world around you.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, you have that little kid feeling when you are an adult. Sometimes the bitterness is put on hold, the harshness of the world falls away and you find yourself in a moment of unsullied amazement. It's those experiences that should stay with us. We should hold them inside, revisit them whenever possible, so we don't forget how exquisite life can be.

These small moments of wonder happen to me a fair bit. When I am out in the forest, searching for adventure, and the sky splits apart and rain falls from the heavens with such a ferocity you'd think it was mourning the loss of something grand. Listening to the sea lions bark at each other at Fanny Bay. Spying a deer at the side of the road grazing on lush green grass. Seeing anything for the first time, like a moose ambling across a roadway, or a mother with her cubs. A piece of cake I can eat. Or watching a bird fly, how it soars through the sky without thought to the magic it is displaying.

Today my little kid feeling came from a bumblebee. A very big bumblebee with an orange belt, We are talking loonie sized. Freeing it from the salon. Watching as it took to the sky. There was that sense of joy and astonishment.

That feeling is what I am grateful for. That I still have it. And hopefully always will.