“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’” – Robin Williams

9 October

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

I am capable of behaving like a crabby child who needs, but hasn’t had, his nap. Sometimes I need to replentish my well because I’m carrying about with me all the problems in the world – a cut-throat business environment, a difficult marriage, unruly teenagers, you name it.

So I head off to the beach. And like a crabby child I’m capable of demanding that that beach show me some real answers. But I notice vaguely that nobody turned it on just before I arrived, nobody will turn it off just after I leave. So also, that beach doesn’t acknowledge my pain in the least. Instead I find myself wiggling my toes in the sand, the waves slushing at my feet, the gulls caw, caw, caw-ing overhead, I taste the salt on my lips as, yet again, an ever-cleansing sea cleanses an ever-cleansed shore. And when I go away from that special place I find that my problems are not answered at all.

Instead, my soul is fed.