My husband and I have an annual tradition of going somewhere warm and beautiful for a week or two. We started four years ago as I was ending radiation. I felt like my body had been ravaged from surgery and radiation and wanted to take my body someplace warm and beautiful. We had never really been beach people, we live in the northeast, so we were skiers. Since undergoing cancer treatment I feel that I want to be gentle with the body, treat it well, give it everything it needs for health, comfort and resilience. We have spent long glorious hours on the beach watching the tide move in and out, the clouds rolling by. It has connected very strongly in me to the fluid nature of our lives, our bodies, our minds. Everything is moving and changing moment by moment. In our ordinary day to day busyness we can forget. We treat our lives, our thoughts and emotions as if they were fixed, permanent. When I am sitting by the ocean it is easy to connect with the ebb and flow and impermance of my life. It is OK, all is well. As I transition back to my life and the start of a new semester I will hold the vision of this beautiful place (by the way this is one of the fabulous beaches in Vieques, an island off Puerto Rico) and try to connect with the feelings of ease and contentment and count my many blessings.
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