The Beach?

One of my best memories of my childhood was riding horses high in the mountains. I remember the exhilaration of crossing little rocky streams and seeing the scars of bear claws in the quaking aspens. I have always wanted to try the opposite of that, ride a horse on the beach. Something about being on a horse and riding along the shore, gazing out to the place where the sky meets the water captures my imagination. I actually feel like it has to be something that I do before I die–a bucket list thing, some would say.

When I had breast cancer, after surgery, but before radiation. I went to the beach with my kids. We went to a beach in Maryland where the sea ponies live. They are wild, not to be ridden or touched. It was an amazing day. I was with the two people I love most on the Earth and saw horses and the ocean together, I didn’t get to ride, but I promised myself that one day, when I was healthy again, I would.

Combining spring break with a writing retreat to a state I haven’t visited, adding in a little sightseeing and a beachy, horse day seemed like all the stars had aligned. However, my trip is not exactly starting out as planned. My plane was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. And then I was given a hotel voucher for a night in Chicago. I love Chicago, but that’s not exactly what I had in mind, but when is life ever what I plan?

I decided to go ahead and start my writing retreat. I sat at my desk in my hotel room, gazing out at all the lights of the city, and then wrote, and wrote. I remembered going in road trips as a kid. My dad would pencil out the route with an atlas, but there was no booking VRBO’s back then. Mom would start searching for a road side motel with a pool and vacancy sign in the early evening and I’d put my book down to help her look. I never really thought about how traveling like that, trusting that everything would work out, was really kind of brave. So, I am going back to the airport in a bit. I want to go to the beach, but am open to whatever adventure lies ahead.