An Old Friend

As long as I can remember I have always had my secret spot that I would go to whenever I felt confused, sad, angry, depressed, or to gather my thoughts. Before I was introduced to the beach I had this concrete enormous circular drain that I would go hide in. I spent much of my teenage years here, thinking and trying to sort things out in my mind. As you can imagine I spent hours in this drain, at the time with a cigarette between my index and middle finger. Everything was so dramatic and so hard back then, it felt good to get away. I haven't been there in years. I left my adolescent problems there when I left this small town years ago.

I finally fell in love with the ocean. I discovered that my new special spot was not secret, eveyone loved the beach. I remember spending hours on the sand with my sister after a good surf (not so much for me, I kinda sucked) and shared laughs and smiles. What a great and beautiful life we have to look forward to. There is so much to look forward to, and the ocean seemed alive with each splash of the waves and break on the sand. What an amazing world we live in, there is so much to live for.

There are times I have felt limited, that things are just not right. I discover that I am not perfect, and that I make mistakes, sometimes huge mistakes. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart. I let myself become enclosed in four walls, and I feel that my world is caving in on me. I wonder how I can break free from my mental prison, especially when I limit my options. When these times happen, I go and visit an old friend, older then you and I. The ocean has never hurt me, my most trusted friend. I have coffee with my friend the ocean on a sandy beach.

"Give me some percpective." I said and took a sip of my coffee.

"Every answer you need lie within your own heart," the ocean said as he crossed his legs and added some salt to his coffee.

"Salt in your coffee," I say with a laugh, "I guess it makes sense."

"U know me, I am very salty."

"Oh yes, I know all too well," I said with a laugh and put on my sunglasses, "I have at times accidently tasted the bitterness of wiping out."

"Tell me about wiping out," the ocean looked deep with in my soul with his amazing blue eyes.

"It usually happens when I get hit by one of your huge wave that I don't see coming." I look at the ocean's young face, he looks like a young adult with perfect skin and dreamy like hair. I could stare in his eyes forever, the place I always found myself.

"This is my reminder to you that not everything is perfect and the unexpected can and will happen," he took a sip of his coffee.

"Yes, but its so unfair because I am having such a good time and then out of nowhere I get hit from behind. Sometimes it seems like hours I am emerged in darkness and can't find my way to the surface."

"It may seem that way, but its only a few minutes," the ocean reassures me."How do you find your way to the surface?"

"I look for the light and I swim toward it," I say and look at my old friend, the ocean, with his perfect features.

"So you never swim toward the darkness?"

"No, because I know it is the wrong way," I say as I start to realize how this is correlating with my life.

I miss my old friend. It has been nearly 3 months and I have not paid my friend a visit. I guess being surrounded by land doesn't help that. I could really use the calming effect of the endless blue sea right now.