Poem: Life’s A Beach Essay, Research Paper

Life’s a Beach

I turned off the car and took a deep breath. Looking slowly up into the pink sky, I began to watch the golden sun go to sleep. The beach seemed deserted, quiet, but peaceful. I opened my door and put my feet out on the soft sand. I started taking my shoes off, then my socks. I threw them in the passenger seat, and then shut the door. I looked out over horizon of the lake and started walking towards the still water. With each step I took, I could feel the warm sand crunch between my toes. Then suddenly, a sharp rock, but not sharp enough to break the skin.

Closer and closer to the calm water, I began sinking deeper in the sand. It was comforting, the silence, tranquility, and warmth of the faint sun. There is a slight breeze, warm, but cold and lonely. I could smell the scent of fish blowing through my hair and body. The sun was still fading, slowly but surely the day was almost over. About half of it is gone now. I could see shades of blue, red, purple, and pinkish-yellow. They were mixed with puffy clouds that lined the beginning of the sky and the end of the water. I noticed the darker shades on the bottom of the lower clouds.

I stopped walking and looked up at the faint stars. The seagulls were flying overhead. They were screeching and swooping at the water. I started to wish I were one of them, flying free without any restrictions or limits. I listened to their voice, the screech. Deep down in I could understand what they were saying. I can’t explain it, but I was so in love with the moment I thought I saw things as they did. I was in company of animals that had no concept of time, and no worries, and I was contempt with that. I closed my eyes and the faint sun warmed my face, as if shining only for me. The warmth made me feel sad, because I had no one to share it with. It made me wonder if anyone else was doing this same exact thing as I was right then.

When I opened my eyes, all the birds were gone except for one. The bird was like me. It didn’t want to fly away; it wanted to stay there on that lonely beach and watch the sunset of a lifetime. No sound, just the wind blowing thunderously through my ears. And the waves crashing down on the wet sand. It made the hair on my arms stand up and I got a chill, but I didn’t move. I took another deep breath and started walking towards where the water meets the sand. With each step I took, the sand got cooler and cooler. Then, with a final step, it turned cold. My feet were in the cold water and sand. It was sudden, wet, but soft. The dark blue water drew back in. Thrusting violently, crashing everywhere, the lake threw its cool brisk body into my dry legs, scaring the lone bird away with its unique destructive sound.

The wind started to pick up a little. It was extra cold on the wet spots of my body. The water was as black as silence, with only a slight reflection of the sun. I could not tell the lake was there. The sun took the lake with it, to share with someone else. I stood there for a couple more seconds, and before I knew it, the sun was gone. The colors became more independent as the shadow of the sun lessened. Then, it was gone. Without trace, sound, or movement. It was strange to me: an energy source as abundant as the sun was just in my presence an energy source that heats a whole planet and a lonely beach had left without a trace.

I looked up and saw a whole new world of beauty, as if the sun left the people of the night a gift until its return. The stars were bright and few. It was a little cloudy higher up. I could only see the stars people stargaze over. But I focused on the ones that were hard to see. Looking through the fog of the night sky, the smaller stars exposed themselves to me. It was only a matter of time before I was accepted into the night and they all welcomed me.

The water crashed into my feet again, cooler than the previous wave. Splash after splash after splash, but the cold waves had no effect on me. I was in such wonder and amazement that my body became numb. I had no feeling because I was lost in a rare beauty that a lot of people take for granted. The millions of scattered stars that covered that silent night sky made a lonely beach seem a little more at home. I went to this beach in hope of finding someone, perhaps a soul mate. But instead, I found that everything comes and goes.

The sun left me with a memory of its beauty with a sunset. The sunset left me with a reminder that the sun is not for ever. The lone bird that stayed with me and watched the sunset showed me that you don’t have to know someone to share a beautiful moment with them. Beautiful moments are beautiful moments, but they have a little more definition behind them if you share them with someone or something. The night sky and stars, gave me a sense of peace, knowing that we are never alone. The stars are always there, even if we can’t see them.