Literally!
Anna’s been looking to go to the beach all summer long. But we’ve been busy and the time just never seemed right. Well, here it is September already, and we had a nice day yesterday, so we packed up and finally went.
Naturally, I took her to one of my old hangouts, Risser’s Beach. I wasn’t really sure how she was going to react, being her first time and all. But we got there and bought some fish and chips for lunch, then headed for the sand. She got 5 feet from the steps down to the beach and stopped.
“THIS IS FUN!”
And we were off and playing. We built some crude sandcastles that lasted no more than 2 minutes each before they were destroyed. She loved running up and down the beach, digging feet in the sand and drawing in it as well.
After a couple hours we packed up for home. As we were driving back the Lahave Ferry was loading. So she had another first yesterday as well, a ride on a boat. She tells me she had a good day, and I look forward to next summer when maybe we’ll take more than just one trip to the beach!
It’s a strange mix of emotions when I drive around that area. One is the feeling of being home and missing that part of NS very much. The other is “hurt” for lack of a better term. Hurt that I have lost contact with friends who live there, or even those who have moved away since high school. Hurt that attempts to find and contact some of these people have not been fruitful. Hurt by some of the memories that aren’t so pleasant as others.
I have changed a lot since back then, and so has the area. Yet it still remains the same old roads, same sandy beaches, same beautiful land and oceanscapes, and my basketball hoop still stands at the end of the driveway of the house I grew up in. I do want to move back there someday… but it would be a fresh start once again. Something that we should be used to, but still struggle with. But we will have to get used to it as a family in ministry.
In the meantime, I trust that God has plans for me. Plans that will lead me to places I haven’t been before, and possibly places I have. In the meantime, I just enjoy that journey as it unfolds.