Loving the Beach

I write to you all in a post-memorial day sunburn. I’m pretty okay about it considering it was that or working. The reason I love going to the beach is not just for some good old vitamin D, I like to people watch. The beach is one of the best places to people watch. So while I was lying out on the sand (okay not literally on the sand, I was on a blanket) I was looking at all the people enjoying our beautiful lakeshore. A Pocahontas and a Sacagawea chilling their feet in the lake while sporting some snazzy aviators, a small army of children building a civilization out of sand, and three boys of various ages in matching swimsuits chasing waves… and each other. Just to name a few. There were also many families and young couples enjoying the combination of the warm sunshine and cool lake.

While I observed these people I thought to myself, gosh I love the beach. And then I realized, while lying there surrounded mostly by people on vacation, is how they view the beach. My beach. They are already sun kissed from spending spring break in Florida or Cancun and have already punched in more boat voyages this spring than I have in the past decade. I am pasty white because it has only been warm enough this past week to don the swim apparel and brave the windy shore. Bronzed and ready, they wander Lake Michigan beach and they probably say they love the beach too. As I lay blending in with the white sand, I watch them and think of the last time I was at this beach…

The last time I was at Lake Michigan beach we had just had the worst snow storm in five years (to my knowledge). The power was out for thousands of people for over a week. The Sunday following this storm some friends of mine and my brothers decided to walk to the beach. It was freezing. Even being bundled in a hoodie, winter coat, scarf, hat, gloves, and boots one couldn’t fight the frigid air. The pier was fully covered in ice. I mean… it looked like ice was beginning to take over the earth with how it was frozen along the handrails, across the cement, and up the legs of the lighthouse. The beach itself was covered in snow with drifts twelve feet high from the wind off the lake. The shoreline was visible with stones exposed to anyone brave enough to reach into the arctic water to retrieve one. The indigo trees along the beach were burdened with snow. But the beach was also empty and deserted, nobody was brave enough to venture out and discover what it has to offer when it’s cold and cloudy. They don’t know how beautiful it is in the winter. But shhhh! Don’t tell them. It’s our secret.

Laying in the sand and watching what I would consider “beach people”, I realized who the true beach people really are. They are the ones who visit the beach not just when it’s warm and happy, but when it’s cold too. Those are the people who truly love the beach. Being out on the beach hunting rocks during the winter even when you are numb throughout your whole body… that’s loving the beach. Not just when it’s sunny and it will get you a tan. Loving the beach means loving it during the good times and the “bad”. Love means summer and winter.