View from the Sea

There is nothing quite like a view from the sea. It’s about this time each year that we start to get a little overwhelmed. You know the feeling.

Short days give way to shorter nights. You survived Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and all of those relatives who “dropped in,” but now you’re staring straight into Christmas just three weeks away. You’re getting tired just thinking about it.

Returning home from a day trip yesterday, I stopped a block from where I live in historic Beaufort to take in the wonderful dusk sky.

It’s about this time each year when I find myself in need of a break – a time to recharge my batteries, regroup before another new year, and replenish quickly depleting reserves.

The truth is we all need such times. We would do well to learn a lesson from the sporting world. Football has its halftime complete with marching bands and hot dogs. Baseball has its seventh inning stretch complete with Take Me Out to the Ballgame and hot dogs. Basketball has its timeouts complete with something or other and I’m sure more hot dogs.

For me a break more often than not means a walk to the sea.

There is something strangely replenishing for me to sit in the sand, stare out over the water, and switch all my gears to neutral. The edge of land, while only a block away from where I live on the Crystal Coast, feels more like a thousand miles away. The edge of the sea is a whole other world so unlike our daily 8-to-6 and then 6-to-midnight world. This is one reason Beaufort Photography Co. chose here to set up shop.

The hugeness of the sea forces me to recalibrate my internal settings. The carefree frolic of pelican and porpoise helps me reorient myself toward true north. The rhythm of the waves compels me to realign purpose and plan.

An hour or two logged at the point where land and sea meet reminds me that it’s not all about me. I walk away knowing the world will go on quite nicely without me one day, thank you very much.

I love Tony Campolo’s outlook. He writes, “If you ever start to feel proud, just remember that soon after your body has been lowered into the grave, your family and friends will be eating potato salad and telling jokes and you’ll be history.” That’s perspective. That’s reality.

So before we turn the corner into 2016, let me encourage you to take a day to turn your engine off, throw your schedule into park, and reevaluate your course to make sure you’re lined up for another season of living your life, a most gracious gift from God.