Monday, September 10, 2012

Old Orchard Beach

I got up at 6:00 today and it sucked.
I got up at 6:25 yesterday and it was supreme.
Allow me to explain.
I was on Old Orchard Beach yesterday. We went up Friday to Sunday.
When I was packing Friday morning I threw my iPod into the bag. I never do that. It is a sacred music machine and I am always afraid I will destroy it somehow.
I know. You say "Joe, it is made to be portable." Leave me alone. I have my hangups.
The sun was shining and the surf was surfing so I crawled out of bed and onto the deck shortly after 6:25. The clouds were already trying to hide the sun from us so it was good I didn't delay.
Sat alone on this long stretch of deck looking into slivers of sun, patches of brilliance as I listened to Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.
It was the perfect song. I immediately had tears running down my cheeks. Thanks to the itty bitty ear buds I could hear the ocean waves behind the music.
Amazing.
There is a point in the song where Leonard and the backup singers sing hallelujah and everything stops - no voices, no music for two seconds - and the waves crashed in on cue.
I was blown away. Accelerated tears.
It was spiritual, it was emotional, it was delicately beautiful, it was breathtaking. That moment fused everything that weekend means to us into one powerful explosion of awareness and clarity.
I am done preaching except to say that tomorrow morning I want you to do what I did. Get up for the sunrise and listen to Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. You will understand what life is meant to be.
Fifteen minutes later and Carol and I were walking the beach. We took a long walk very early in the morning saying hello to people and dogs and babies and seagulls.
That is how life is supposed to be. Magic and music and beauty and peace.
The beach is such a magical place. It draws people out early in the morning in wonder. To walk, to sit, to listen and look, to fish, to surf.
It is meditative. It makes you aware that you are actually alive. Not just an employee or a bill payer or a responsibility machine.
You are human with all the beauty that implies.
This is an annual trip for us. We look forward to it endlessly.
This year we didn't have beach weather, which is rare, but we had peace weather and that's all we need.
The same core group goes every year and we talk and laugh together easily. Somehow this weekend moved along at a leisurely pace.
Usually it feels like it is flying by and we dig in furiously trying to hold back reality. For some reason the ride up and the ride home went effortlessly and the weekend itself unfolded in delicious slo-mo.
Lots of pictures and lower blood pressure.
Carol and I were there on Memorial Day Weekend, just the two of us and the theme was small dogs. Everywhere we looked people were walking tiny, little dogs on the beach.
This time the theme was toddlers chasing seagulls.
Over and over again we watched little ones staggering around the sand chasing seagulls. And they never gave up. Whenever they got close, the gulls would hop a few steps away and the kid would just keep on coming. The ultimate expression of hope and self confidence.
Had dinner Friday night at Sarge's Tailgate Grille in Saco, Maine - the greatest restaurant in the entire state of Maine.
Excellent food, a major family gathering, couple of drinks,a live band; a very supreme night. I had the best goddamn prime rib - The Richard Petty cut, mind you - that I have ever had in my life. Except for the last time I dined at Sarge's Tailgate Grille - the greatest restaurant in the entire state of Maine.
Today Carol and I are back to what passes for reality; a reality we don't like and are determined to change. We have to deal with that.
But we are armed with memories burned into our brain of a mystical, magical weekend complete with babies and dogs and people and music and sunshine and wind and family and divine food and beach food and quiet Dunkin Donuts breakfasts and walks on the beach and contemplation and raucous laughter and sand sculptures built and washed away and surfers and sexy guys and sexy girls and fat people and old people and young people alone people and together people and ocean waves and waves and waves and waves beautiful background rhythm to a weekend of LIFE.
Got all that fuel from a short but brilliant trip to Old Orchard Beach.
Thank you to Paula (who celebrated a birthday yesterday) and Bill and Lorraine and Cori and Sarge and Kevin and John and Wayne and Summer and Tawnya and anybody else I forgot to mention for building these memories with us.
The world is in trouble. Carol and are are ready to rock.

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