This morning as I walked, I thought about how the fresh air and the serenity of the beach promote a feeling of being healthy. This prompted me to ask, What do I mean when I use the word healthy? How do I define Health? And What is the collective understanding of what health is in society?

Can we learn to look up, way, way up at times of conflict, especially when involved in competitive positioning that causes us to miss beautiful moments of understanding?

What is the message for me if I observe the ocean’s stillness, the chaos of the following week, and then the safe behaviour of the heron?

There is value in both states of being, solitude and socialization. As we pursue our search for meaning in our lives we need a healthy balance of time alone and time together.

I am always grateful for the learning on my beach walks in the early morning. The learning today is to be is to be gentle to myself, to be those slow waves coming in and gently touching and smoothing the sand.

What is a person’s purpose? How do we define that? Is it defined by our own perspective? Or by others?

We all have a need for the support and guidance of others to reach our goals. This is especially true when one is considering making a big change in one’s life, perhaps a life change to realize a buried dream.

The Power of Listening, to others, to ourselves, to what is around us, to what is inside us, or even to silence.

When one is considering making changes in one’s life, small or big ones, it becomes critical to know the difference between realistic goals and expectations in order to avoid the pitfall of thinking they are one and the same.

As I walked, a verse of the poem, Sea Fever, by John Masefield popped up in my mind.

“I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.”

When it seems your path is blocked, is it time to give up or change direction?

If every moment were just like this, then how would we know to identify it as tranquility?

Seeing with the eyes can, at best, give only a glimpse of life happening all around us. Invisibility in nature provides protection for living and nonliving things. Do we humans choose invisibility at times, perhaps burying dreams we had wanted to pursue in the past? Are we self-protecting or self-limiting when we do ?

The value of previous experience and the moment you finally reach a stable stone.

“Who are we really?” Is this the question, the key question for each of us?

Has the experience of the pandemic helped you to identify a strong need for connection? What and where are the dots you can see to connect in your life?

As I struggled with the ant invasion I also struggled with my values about interdependence, ecosystem maintenance, and my right to kill while defending myself.

How we “see” things can limit our vision of our path forward. Sometimes even changing position physically can change perspective.

The beach today is clean and the ocean smooth as glass. The ocean is offering up its stillness in readiness for the new waves and the tide that will return.

For days I have wakened to the sound of down pouring rain, bad news for my exercise routine. My meditative walk has been out of the question, and as a result I have been missing its therapeutic calming effect. But today the sun has come back to cheer the world and me.