A Love Letter to The Sea

Dear The Sea,

Is that your name? You go by so many titles - Sea, Ocean, The Waves, The Water. It's nice to talk to you either way.

I came to visit today which is a rarity for me. I'm ashamed to say it but as someone who lives so close by I really don't visit enough. You're like a grandma in that sense, although the difference being that I know you're not going anywhere soon. You're a constant - changeable, but a constant nonetheless. I think we all need that.

I'm sure you get a lot of these love letters and I'm sure you've heard all these things before - enough compliments and your head won't fit through the door, they say, but it's still nice to hear. Besides, you're too big to fit through any door anyway.

Your enormity fascinates me - the fact that you just go on and on, and keep going further. Further than any eye can see. You connect us. You are the edge of the earth but you still feel like home. You are powerful and dangerous, but we love you all the same.

How can something so terrifying feel like such a comfort? Because you are a comfort, as well as a constant. I could look at you for hours and never get bored. In and out and in and out. The whispering as you brush the sand, the shout as you crash. I could listen forever too. In and out.

I love how you bring people together, all of us in our pilgrimage to your side - walking. We walk with you as far as we can, going nowhere and everywhere. All of us eventually deciding to pause, look, turn around and walk back to where we came from. Back into the wind, or away from it.

We'll go home thinking of you with reminders in our hair and shoes. Sand between our toes even though we had socks on under our boots and kept to the path. You get in somehow - stay with us. Maybe you want to go home too. Do you get lonely?

I love how gentle you can be, how calming you are. You help us to forget. We watch, look to the horizon, and everything else melts away, like it was never there. Everything else stops when we're with you, when I'm with you.

I feel like you're mine, my little secret - the worst kept secret I'm sure. I see different things in you to the next person and the next. The child on the scooter, the bearded man and his shabby dog, the elderly ladies on the bench, the couple sheltered by the beach hut, the boy with the kite. You are all of ours.

I'll still be thinking about you days later, I always do. Every single time. I want to be with you for my highs and lows, the celebrations and commiserations. I want to see you, to associate with you, to thank you.

Thank you for being - you are just what I need when I don't know I need it. Thank you for letting me in, for letting me stay a while, for never forcing me away. Thank you for making me feel welcome.

I'll come and see you again soon, I promise this time. I think I need to. Thank you for making things better.

With all my love,

Georgia x