The Ocean Is Good For Your Soul!

So we're back from our ever so lovely vacation, and I am happy/sad to be home. I love being home....anyone who knows me knows that....but there is something about the beach that stirs up lot of emotions inside me. It makes me feel very much like this: Although I never put on a stitch of makeup, and I let my hair rule or be unruly if you must know the truth....I felt beautiful at the beach! I find the ocean is very cleansing....just listening to the sound of it....I could literally sit there for hours on end. There was one point while I was sitting in my lounge chair watching my children frolic in the waves that I actually became so overwhelmed that I began to cry....watching them be transformed by the ocean as well. They are so happy there. I'm not saying they aren't normally happy children, but something about the ocean and the sand and being together there makes them (and me) realize that we do not need anything but each other and GOD! Watching the crabs and seeing all the seashells, building sand castle after sand castle....it all makes me appreciate what God has created. I think the thing that really touches me about the ocean the most is how much my boy loves it.....I can't begin to tell you in words....how much Cal LOVES the beach. He does things there that would typically drive his autism into complete overdrive, but instead he has a constant smile on his face and radiates joy. When we were leaving the beach, Cal cried...and so we decided to drive up the Texas coast line into Louisiana which was our next destination, so he could see it for as long as possible. On our way, we stopped at one particularly secluded part of a beach....nobody was there but us. I got out my camera to snap some photos, and Cal kept saying...."We need our swim suits to get in the ocean!" He didn't realize that we weren't planning on swimming....just taking some pictures and taking in the view....but what we didn't realize was that he had to swim. So we got his swim suit out, and he promptly ran to the water. He got in and stayed in until we made him get out.....all the while with a smile on his face. After that, he was at peace with leaving the beach and heading to our next destination. He needed some closure and one last encounter with the ocean....his new best friend....to hold him over until we bring him here again. And we will bring him here as often as we can. The ocean is good for your soul! It cleanses me and clears my head like nothing else, and I simply love it!

Oh and I LOVE this too:

More beach photos coming soon!