Pelicans............

Pelicans, terns and seagulls were the first things I noticed as I reached the edge of the sand from my car parked on the beach approach............ but, when I walked a few feet onto the sand......... something else caught my eye............flowers..........black-eyed susans and coreopsis growing out of the dunes............it was a little after 5 pm......and it is winter..........I have lived here for more than 31 years and I had never noticed flowers blooming in the sand dunes at this time of the year...... I stopped to look closely at what I had missed before .....who knows how many times......... and was immediately cheered by the colors and the beauty.............. A flock of about twenty birds.......
seagulls and terns............. were huddled together at the water's edge....not moving......... looking as if they might be napping.............the only pelicans I could see were not in flight or on the beach.
They were floating on the surface of the ocean.......... past the sand bar..........occasionally bobbing their heads under the water.............looking for an easy catch for dinner?............. I had already been parked at the beach for an hour..........eating pizza and reading..........it was cloudy, overcast
and breezy.............I had noticed several young men carrying their surfboards up the approach to their cars.......... so, I was surprised to see several others still in the water using the last of the waves..........3 or 4 feet high..........churning and choppy ..........white foam sinking into the sand at low tide.............. I walked slowly toward the water.....the light was already dimming............ the beach appeared to be almost deserted............. but as far as I could see north and south was limited by the heavy mist...........I thought of the phrase "fog rolling in", but this wasn't fog..... just a heavy, peaceful mist............... enveloping and comforting.............. I stopped at a rise and looked out to the horizon............on the edge of the world, to my left, were two fishing boats.......... shrimpers, if you will............only noticeable by the lights on their masts................ far to my right
was another, also with its mast lights on............. I closed my eyes and listened to the constant
droning/hissing/dull roar of the waves..........took a long, deep breath ...........inhaled the cool evening air.............opened my eyes and lowered myself to sit on the damp sand............. I took another slow, deep breath...released it slowly..........breathed in deeply again...........exhaled slowly, paying attention to how the ocean air felt in my nose, down my throat and filling my lungs................ it was cool and clean..........only the slightest hint of salt and fish............ and then I realized that the air I exhaled from my lungs changed a little with each breath............ each long, slow exhale became a little cooler......... a little fresher...until I felt that the old air in my lungs had been completely replaced by the cooler and cleaner air surrounding me...............it seemed to saturate me from the inside out.............I was beginning to feel calm, refreshed and peaceful.
Then my ears picked up a "slapping" sound............coming from the water.............I listened quietly............concentrating on the slaps..repeating...............repeating...........It wasn't until I opened my eyes and let them work together with my ears that I realized the waves were making this sound.............as they rolled and curled over...........capturing a pocket of air between the wave and the ocean surface............there it was...."slap"................again and again............ to my left..then my right................left again...........then in front of me................ something else I had never noticed here before.................The mist seemed to be getting closer to me............. like a gauzy curtain............... blocking my view of homes, condos and hotels............. a small, quiet,
seemingly-empty beach on either side of me............ feeling like an island........... with the huge,
constantly moving, dark grey ocean in front of me...............this was solitude....this was calm.........
this was comfort.....and it struck me.......it was always here................always here for me to merge with at any time..............no schedule............no limits ..................all peace.