Who needs Tiffany’s when we’ve got the sunlight sparkling on the ocean?
My spirit lifts whenever I see the sunlight sparkling on the sea. I call it Sea Sparkle Therapy.
The sunlight splashing off the ocean creates an array of glittering light that is so gorgeous I feel like they are splashing light all over me and it makes me feel high and giggly and happy fro the tips of my toes to the top of my head.
I take my kids and we talk the play of light on the water. We watch the waves cover the sand, then head back to the ocean, leaving a wake of popping glitter as the sunlight hits the water and the sand and disappears. It’s so gorgeous, so exquisite, we dig our toes in, skip, and kick the water, watching the sparkles dance in the air.
Sometimes we end up body surfing, sometimes flying through the waves, and sometimes feeling the waves batter the hell out of us, like divorce and death have done the past two years. We drag ourselves out, bedraggled but high from swimming in the sparkles with Henry’s arms around my neck.
Forget diamond necklaces, I would rather have my child’s arms around my neck.
Sometimes I like to stand or sit on the enormous rocks, feeling their solid earthy energy and rough smoothness under my bare feet and imagining how many eons those rocks have sat there with waves crashing over them, getting smoother and more beautiful with every crash.
Sometimes I take Professor Bananas, my doodle, and I cheer him on as he races around the sand, gleefully skipping and leaping with his ears flapping in the wind.
Sometimes I go by myself and just walk, watching the play of light, the luminescent colors, and basically taking a sun-splash bath.
Others can have Cartier. Instead, give me a walk after it rains with my teenage son. Even if you don’t live near the sea, you can still feel Sparkle Therapy after the rain. The raindrops hanging off the leaves catch the light and make the air shimmer, the smell of wet pine needles under my feet, and the leaves starting to change.
A slight breeze causes a spray of drops to fall through the air like we are being showered with diamonds.
Have you ever seen a spider’s web after it rains?
The edges of a pink fairy rose?
Breathtaking.
Henry makes me a crown of rain-soaked flowers more shimmering than any diamond tiara. I don’t even mind the flowers soaking my hair and dripping down my face.
I don’t want a ruby crown, diamonds on my fingers and china on my table.
I want flowers in my hair, books on my table, a child’s hand in mine.
Those are my true treasures.
