Sunset at Gray Whale Cove Beach.
“I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads.
It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.”
North Peak Trail, McNee Ranch State Park
Coast ride from Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay and back...
This weekend has been filled to the brim with all of my favorite things- sunshine, heart-pumping activity, solid good company, with the common denominator being the ocean. After running up Montara Mountain, my friend and I crossed over Highway 1 and galloped down the wooden stairs to Grey Whale Cove Beach. I'm always fascinated by the outdoors, but the scene we were greeted with in the cove was pure poetry in motion. Thunderous waves clapped fiercely against the rocks. Silhouettes of seagulls were illuminated by the vibrant colors of the sunset. Frothy white waves passionately crashed into the shoreline and then dissolved into the sand.
I watched while a woman toed the foamy bubbles at the edge of the shoreline while looking out into the distant horizon. We are all dancing on the edge between the safety of the sandy beach and the fierce mystery and vibrancy and adventure that the ocean holds.
“The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the globe . . . The sea is only a receptacle for all the prodigious, supernatural things that exist inside it. It is only movement and love; it is the living infinite.”
There is so much beauty in this world, and also in words. I'm halfway through Anthony Doerr's novel "All the Light We Cannot See." He paints the most beautiful pictures with his lyrical and poetic writing style. Pick up a copy for yourself, spread out a blanket on a hidden beach, and inhale all of the life around you and on the page.