I grew up in the foothills of the Adirondacks. Mountains are my home territory, so to speak. They are where I feel the most refreshed, the most myself.
We don’t live near any mountains right now – none closer than an hour’s drive, at least – but we do have something else within a stone’s throw of our apartment, something that gives respite and encouragement both, something that exhilarates with just one breath.
I refer, of course, to the ocean.
Sometimes we get used to it, having the entire Atlantic at our feet, so to speak. And then sometimes, like this weekend, our first trip to the shore after a long and miserable winter …
It takes your breath away once more, and you can’t believe how lucky you are to be living here, even for just a few years.
Wow. I’m an ocean soul – I wish I lived closer to it. That’s where I’ve always felt the most alive. I’d trade you my mountains & lakes for your ocean – but then, like you say, sometimes you wake up to the incredible privilege to live where you do. Thank you for that reminder.
I’m really curious to see what sort of environment my girls grow up to have an affinity with (yes, I realize I’m ending my sentence with a preposition, but whatever). Since their early childhood is being spent near the ocean, will they feel most themselves there? Or since we move around so much, will it be something else? Or does it have less to do with where your formative years were spent, and more to do with your personality? Fun to speculate on (another sentence-ending preposition! Don’t tell my college English teacher).
“Prepositions are words one should never end a sentence with.” (Churchill, I think.) 🙂
I certainly didn’t grow up near the ocean, and was only taken there once on holidays as a kid – otherwise it was always the mountains, as my parents & siblings are avid hikers. And then in my teens, we even moved to the mountains; I lived in the Bavarian Alps (yes, “The Hiiiills Are Aliiive…” – that’s the place) and grew to love that area as home. But still, ocean is my soul home.
I think part of it is that there’s something about the salt air that’s actually physically good for mental health (something about negative ionisation boosting serotonin). I can breathe so much better by the ocean…