Our family has loved and lived close to the ocean for generations. Here, sitting, are my great grandmother, originally from Germany, with her daughter, my Nana, and then her daughter, my mother, Mary (maybe age 18 then) all upon the sands of the Atlantic Ocean. Along side stands Uncle Mike. Breezy Point, NY was our family’s ocean place for decades. Family and friends enjoyed the beach bungalow on Oceanside Avenue from1933 to just a few years ago when it was time to let it go.  “All you need in Breezy Point is your bathing suit,”my Nana once said.

When my parents left New York and moved to California in the 1950s, they found new beaches to love. Here I am as an infant, reveling upon the sands of Mission Bay, San Diego with my mother back in the early 1960s. I still remember the fabric of that bathing suit.

The decades have passed, yet recently some of our family members (my brother, Mike and my niece, Megan) took my youngest brother Joe, who has Down syndrome, out for a boat ride on Mission Bay. Grabbing the wheel, his face lit up as the evening sun spread its golden hue upon us. Calm thrill is the emotion here.

Grateful for places of love and love of places that sustain when the rest of life can feel off-kilter.

And a sweet nod to our sea friends. Thank you, ocean, for beholding our awe.