The Tactile Ocean Experience

You know what I love about the ocean by us at this time of the year? With intoxicatingly warm air and water temperatures, it’s so hands-on. While I really love visiting some of the beaches around the world that have dramatic, rocky cliffs that plunge sharply down to the shore below them, I think I would be beside myself if I couldn’t ever get in the middle of it all, if I couldn’t have the tactile experience of sand on toes and water on skin. It’s not that I’m a big water sports kind of girl or anything, but I do want to be in the water, not just observing it. The small people feel this way, and then some.

My daughter’s favorite thing to do is to play in the ocean with her daddy. They start off jumping waves, and then she pretends to push him in the water. He’s a good sport about it, letting her push him under the waves time and time again.

Then, at some point, I’ll look up from whatever I’m doing and see this.

My middle son loves the water. The entire time he’s out in it, he has a huge grin on his face. He also gets jazzed when a wave catches him off-guard and knocks him over. Then, he’ll come running out up on shore, saying, “That was so (emphasis on so) awesome (emphasis on awesome)!”

He’ll stop for a few minutes and stare at the water, almost looking as if he’s posing for an inspirational photo, and then he’ll run back out into the ocean again for another round.

My oldest son stays out the longest. He loves the waves, jumping over them,

ploughing through them, diving under them, looking as if he was born for this. He’s magnificent to watch.

And so we spend our time these days, half on land and half in the sea.