New Hampshire Beach Drive

Saturday we drove down the New Hampshire coast and checked out the area. Between the high tide and strong winds, there were no beaches. Along the main drag, Ocean Avenue, there is a nice “attractive” concrete wall that lines the road between the homes and the angry ocean beyond it. Despite the rain, we stopped on more than one occasional and I was in complete awe of its power. I completely understand now why people feel trapped living in the Midwest or the Rockies after living near something like this. Its power, it’s never ending strength. The sound of the rain was nothing compared to the sound of these forceful waves.

You look back, inland, and see all of the man made structures. Each one of them seems trivial and ugly compared to the ocean. I could not help but feel small next to her. That vast body of water has outlived everything we know or have come to know. I can remember when I was a lot younger and realizing that I drink the same water that dinosaurs have and feeling a strong sense of connection to our global community’s past, but after seeing the awesome power of an angry high tide, I’m beginning to feel it even more strongly in the current here and now. It’s very, very alive.

I keep thinking when I move to Hawaii in about a year that I will feel miserable and trapped but now I’m beginning to see that it is really not the case. My small self may be confined to the small land mass that makes up the Hawaii islands, but I’ll be anything but trapped. I may get bored. The ocean may go from being new and exciting to being very old, but spiritually, I will not be trapped.