The beach

I'll be honest; for most of my life, I didn't really get the beach.  Sure, the water is pretty and the waves are cool but how much time to you need there? 10 minutes, maybe 20?, then on to something more fun.  Justin, on the other hand, is a beach bum.  I think he could live his whole life at the beach.  This week, my beach bum husband made a beach convert out of me.  With beaches like these, who wouldn't become a devoted follower...

Our last day in Phuket we spent most of our time at Nai Than beach, on the northwest side of the island.  It was close to our bungalow guest house and much less crowded than the famous beaches in the middle of the island.  We spent a fabulous day lounging in the hot sun and cooling off in the clear water.  In the water, we enjoyed the pull of the tides, which are particularly strong around Phuket.  I found that I could predict the size of the wave coming behind me from the strength of the preceding undertow.  Just in the moment I felt the strength of the undertow drag me out to sea, the stronger wave would lift me back toward the shore.  The balance of it was beautiful; such a splendid equilibrium.  Life is that way too, sometimes, the way our struggles are tempered with blessings and joys.

Somehow the pull of the waves got me thinking about our future and about the forces that will be pulling us.  At least a dozen times I've tried to write about what we're moving toward, but it hasn't quite materialized yet.  I do know that Thailand is changing us; not just the people and the way of life, but also the freedom to explore new ideas. I don't know yet where we will go, but I hope wherever it is, we'll live an intentional life there.

At one point in the day, we decided to be brave and sit so the powerful waves would break right on top of us.  It was a helpless and overwhelming feeling, being tossed about by the sea, but exhilarating, too.  Also, it was pretty entertaining watching Justin roll around in the surf.  Justin had left some change in his pocket and when he got up he discovered that his 20 baht had been replaced with a pocketful of sand.  Thankfully we did not have anything stolen during our week in Phuket, but the ocean did pick Justin's pocket!