coastal healing...

The Red Dot Club and

(The Diary of Longing)

A family is one of nature's solubles; it dissolves in time like salt in rainwater.” 
― Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides

If you look closely, you can see the name Prince of Tides on the boat with the orange life preserver...words morphed to a memory. Looking back, it was a simple-lifetime-ago-stop on this journey to home.  I was teaching in Hemingway.  My little daughter was bouncing around Anderson Boulevard, my father was alive and my mother was with us.  My grandmother was still hosting the every-Sunday-rump-roast-dinner (which was the thin cord binding our family together), and the promise of a lifetime was before me.  Thanksgivings are happy, and I can still hear the wind rustling the pines.  Now, it's July, we are taking the long way home from Savannah and stop in Beaufort. Actually, it is the very same spot. The waterfront is full of sailboats, and we are happy.  We laugh about Charlie Brown, the waiter on River Street, and the dolphins in the Savannah River, and Tybee. Amanda doesn't like Tybee.  I love it for the lighthouse. And...here I am again. Another roundabout. Full circle. This time we drive from Charleston.  It is my birthday.  Amanda and I are sitting on the waterfront.  Time stands still...just long enough for a memory to congeal.  

Waterfront Park in Beaufort, South Carolina