Tag: ocean

My birthday

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Adult children, books, celebrations, friends, italian, local fun, Party for one, the beach

 

I hope you all had fun with me this week. In addition to the week of cakes, my daughter gifted me with a cake today, bringing my total to eight for the week, and this is the one with which we celebrated with singing and candles.

Here is today’s cake from Wells IGA: Caramel Sea Salt Cake!

Here is a slideshow of all seven cakes in the BirthdayCakeWalk2017.

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For my actual birthday today, I did more than just eat cake, if you can believe it! I ate whatever I wanted. A chocolate bread from Boulangerie in Kennebunk for breakfast. Sausage Flatbread with a salad from Pizza Napoli in Ogunquit for lunch. So far, that’s all. Oh, and the Salted Caramel Cake from my daughter!

And I tried to include things I love (besides food!) in my day. Connecting with my family and friends! Lilacs! The ocean! Reading! Writing! And of course, a visit to a bookstore!!

Now, for the point: It is my birthday wish that all of YOU have a day like this, too. Why wait for your birthday to be kind to  yourself? Do it now. Today.

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Go with the flow

by Karen, posted in education, Functional Health, health, Metaphysical healing, the beach

ocean clouds 3I attended a chakra class at the Portsmouth Regional Hospital this weekend. Chakras, as you may know, are energy centers in the body that energy flows through, often described as spinning discs of different colors. Find out more about chakras here: Anodea Judith’s Wheels of Life

One thing that came up in the class was that taking a walk on the beach is one of the best ways to ground oneself, because all of one sense’s are engaged in this process.

GREAT IDEA!

As soon as the class ended, I headed to my favorite beach. So what if it was only in the 60’s? I arrived and was dismayed to see that the water was almost to the wall; there wasn’t enough remaining beach to support my intention to walk on it.

I have recently been told that I should consider working on my ability to ‘go with the flow’. Apparently, I am not great at this (what? what?). I decided to seize the opportunity to practice. So what if I couldn’t go walk on the beach? I could stand on it until the tide came all the way in.

So I did. I stood in the water. I stood on a rock. I stood in the sand. I literally went with the flow.

I highly recommend it.

🙂

 

String theory

by Karen, posted in family, good grief, relationships

I recently attended a memorial service. I didn’t know the woman who died, Mary, very well, but that didn’t stop me from crying almost from the time the first words were out of the celebrant’s mouth. Like Lt. Columbo said, “…death reminds you of death” (or something close to that). Not only was I sad for Mary and her family, I was also remembering the loss of my own mother, my grandmothers, my father. Even though they died many years ago, for grief purposes, it could have been yesterday. Because I’d experienced the loss of my mother, I was feeling an overwhelming empathy for what Mary’s daughter must be feeling.

Something that struck me was this: many of the things that were being said about Mary’s interests and what was important to her were true for me as well. Loves the ocean? Check. Loves her family and friends? Check.  Loves Bingo? Okay, well, as Meatloaf said, “two out of three ain’t bad”. Even though it’s common to hear how people are all different, it feels true that people are really all the same, too.

Between readings, I started to think about something one of my friends said about String Theory.  I can’t recall her words exactly, but I remember that I created a visual of everyone being connected to each other through space and time by string (cooking twine, actually :)). It made me realize that even though I’d only met her a couple of times, because I was connected to people that she loved, I was also connected to her.

Doesn’t this idea give the phrase, “hanging by a thread” new meaning?

Angels at the beach

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, good grief, local fun, Midlife Crisis, relationships

I was walking at the beach with my daughter and my husband the other day. I was thinking about how big she’d gotten, which led to thoughts of her at different ages throughout the years, and how I received that sign from my dad that I was pregnant with her.
Of course, thinking about one dead relative inevitably (for me) leads to thoughts about other dead relatives.  Wells Beach reminds me of Nantasket Beach in the 1970’s, and Nantasket beach reminds me of my grandmother. She always took me to the beach (ocean) when I was growing up, and I always think of her when I am near it, so granted, thoughts of Nana had been hovering there in the back of my mind for the past hour or so.

After we finished our beach walk we went to Forbes to get some lunch. I was telling my husband how I had been trying to get to Forbes all summer but something kept coming up and I never made it. I decided to take it as a sign that it was because I was supposed to be there this day in particular. He smiled at me, indulgently. He is used to me ascribing meaning to things that he does not.

As we were finishing up our lunch, I suddenly became aware of the conversation at the table behind me: “Nana, are you happy here at the beach? You’re an angel!”

I swear to God.

I felt a huge surge of emotion as the tears welled up and spilled forth (zero to 180 in a millisecond!).

I just finished a pretty good book that has an angel subplot: Pictures of You  by Caroline Leavitt. Check it out!

Ocean: the cure for what ails you

by Karen, posted in health
  1. Respiratory complaints. Got a cold? Sinus infection? Get thee to the beach. Breathe in that salt air! In my
    The ocean at Two Lights

    opinion, breathing in ocean air is the one true “pulmonary toilet“.

  2. Acne. When I was growing up, I had an older cousin who would bring large, empty gallon milk containers to fill up with the Atlantic to bring home. Why? She used it to “treat” her acne. She swore that using the salt water from the ocean as a final rinse kept her skin clear and her breakouts to a minimum.
  3. Rashes. Same principle as #2.
  4. Wounds. Bruising? Cuts? Submerge the affected part in the ocean. My theory is that it stimulates circulation to speed wound healing.
  5. Joint problems. Same principle as #4.
  6. Depressed mood. I repeat: get thee to the beach! See, hear, smell, feel (okay, but probably you wouldn’t want to taste it…unless you do that vicariously through, say, fried clams or lobster…) the ocean! Bring your binoculars; maybe you’ll see a seal or a cormorant (okay, so last time I went I saw a rat, but then I refocused my attention and saw the cormorant!). How can your spirits not lift? I ask you.

“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”
~author, Isak Denison

Anybody have any other ills that they feel the ocean has cured??

Put the ‘oy’ in ‘annoy’

by Karen, posted in Someone's gotta say it

I love the beach. I love it so much, that I live near it. Whenever I have a few moments of free time, I often head to the ocean to say “hi”.

Like yesterday. There was still a little daylight left after I got back home from work so I grabbed a book, a sandwich, and headed for the beach. I was very happy to find a free space. I parked, opened my windows a bit, opened my sandwich, opened my book, and settled in. For just about a minute, all was well.

Well, I forgot that it’s July now, and not April. THEY were there. You know, them: other people. With their unsmiling faces as they walk right out in front of your car to cross the parking lot without looking first.  Smoking. Coughing. Smashing their “man purses” into the front end of  your car as they lumbered by with their dripping ice cream cones. With their unleashed dogs. With their screaming children who drop their drawers and pee right on the sand (you know, where we walk? with our bare feet?). With their malodorous, unwashed bodies (hello? the rooms at the motel do have showers! It doesn’t cost extra to use them!).

Well, after 10 minutes of this, even two of my most favorite things (beach and book) lost their luster. I put up my window. I left. I didn’t look back.

I can’t wait for fall.