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The Girl Who Loved the Sea

Once upon a time, many years ago
a little girl was born who loved the sea.
There is a picture in an album of her sitting quietly on the sand
when she was two, her busy play stilled for a while, pondering the glow
of a shining sun on water, as far as she could see,
and sifting golden grains through the tiny fingers of her baby hand.

If I turn the page, another photo will show
her with teenage friends, swimming and romping with glee
on a wide beach, making memories to last a lifetime, and
on another page, another shore she would come to love and know
well during the wondrous college years when her spirit was free
and her heart was open to understand
vast new vistas she had not glimpsed before

including love that slowly dawned with the melodic flow
of his music, on a cliff against the backdrop of ocean waves, and the gift of the key
to his heart. And one summer night he put a band
of gold on her finger, and for more than half a century their love did grow
as they worked and learned together, and watched with awe as three
children came along and stretched their hearts far beyond even what they had planned.

As years and decades passed, life was rich and full. Sometimes, though,
things became too hard - frightening - or sad - and she needed somewhere else to be
and then she would remember – and remembers yet today - the wide strand
of golden shore, craggy rocks, crashing waves, and endless sky, that filled her spirit – so
for a time, she would flee
to that blessed place of solace, there to stand,
to walk, to sit and rest a while – finding peace, as had the little girl in days of yore.

The Girl Who Loved the Sea  (ASR) Autobiographical sketch of a lifelong love of the sea #1114113 by Phyllis