Pefect Moments

This last Labor Day weekend I realized what can only be described as a perfect moment.

The family spent the weekend at the beach house as we usually do, and of course this time of year the weather can go either way in the Pacific Northwest, but Monday dawned clear and warm with a gentle breeze from the northwest. My wife and I decided to take our grandson to the beach, so I picked up our folding chairs, blanket, beach toys, and sun screen and made the very short walk from the house to beach.

The tide was receding, the beach was broad, and it was clear the showers from the day before had chased many people home as the numbers walking those ancient sands were few. Neahkhanie Head sat sullen in the north modestly shrouded in a thin veil of haze. We opened the chairs near the high tide line, as the sand is appropriatly moist for building castles.

Despite the time of the tide we decided to get our feet wet, hoping the firming grip of El Nino on the North Pacific would be just enough to tolerate the icy water. To our surprise wading ankle deep was tolerable, and it was then I realized God had blessed me with something perfect, a moment in a day, which will live in me forever. We laughed as the waves lapped our feet, lifting our grandson above the next curl and break. Brown Pelicans dove and swooped between the much higher breakers further out and the rocks were covered in migrating shore birds as they contemplated the more technical aspects of the their upcoming journey south. None of us wanted to step back up to the dry sand, but eventually we did and as we climbed the fore dune the sun low on the horizon, I looked wistfully over my shoulder and wished I be in that moment forever.

That was my epiphany; how many perfect moments have I experienced and forgotten or did not even realize they were those blessed interludes which I wish now I could recall and cherish. Many were out doors, almost all of them with someone else, and each would have required a stillness of the soul to recognize them. You can't go looking for them, they come to you, but you can be ready when they do show. Savor yours.