Just looking at the Pacific brings tears and memories.
I’m back from a quick trip to the West coast and even though there was work to do, my feet and my heart pulled me to the ocean where so much of my life is exposed with every wave that breaks. The Pacific is like a canvas, playing out the memories of a life that was filled with a lot of love and hope and ultimately, sadness.
It is a place where Leroy and I shared so many great pieces of our lives. Two Southern California kids who came together and built a life. That ocean was the glue. We would visit it like an old friend. It would wash over us as we swam beneath its surface, cover us in a salty spray as we walked and talked along its shoreline and provided us with so many back-drops for a perfect sunset picnic.
And now, gently carrying Leroy’s ashes in the currents, this ocean holds the most precious memory of all.
Each time I visit my old friend, I feel a reconnection.
It’s my ocean full of memories.
July 21, 2011 @ 2:09 am
My heart goes out to this post. I am sincerely sorry for your loss.
July 15, 2011 @ 4:16 am
I have missed your stories the last few days so I assumed you were traveling. I’m glad you were able to go to the ocean and have those tears and memories. Difficult but comforting at the same time. I am in Scotland at the moment where Jim chose as his “place to see with my brothers” when he was diagnosed. I know I am traveling some of the same roads he did and seeing the same sights he did. I didn’t plane it around his birthday, which is tomorrow, but it just happened the special rate tickets were during the time period. It’s been uncanny how many times I have felt his presence here…in the visitors center the hymn his band always closed each performance with, was playing. I know he was there. In a gift shop there was a piece of pottery with the words “from little acorns a mighty oak grows”…I think Leroy has accompanied us as well.
July 15, 2011 @ 1:05 am
Laurie, Isn’t it just the coolest! After so much time has passed and you have gone so far with your life…alone, to think you still can hang onto those memories like they happened yesterday, bittersweet, but memories of love for sure! I hope you found some comfort there my friend! Love and hugs…Lor
July 14, 2011 @ 4:15 pm
How wonderful to look out on that expanse and think, “It’s my ocean full of memories.”