Footprints

Winter, some think it's not a time for the beach.

I beg to differ.

You can take pleasure in the solitude of the beach.

The crowds are gone and the beach is your own. When you're quiet, looking and listening, totally in the moment you're open to new insights.

Walking along my ocean beach, the tide was out and I noticed the ripples in the sand. Some were deep, some flat. The wind and water, the currents of life, can leave their mark in the seacoast sand and in my heart.

I saw footprints. Some have been here before me. There were deep ones widely spaced from people running, I presume. There were those that were less noticeable, closely spaced, I could imagine someone treading lightly, going softly on the earth, maybe stepping slowly. There were large prints, and smaller ones. You could tell the individuals by the different patterns to the tread marks of their soles.

I see more than people prints. There are animal footprints. Small ones scampering along beside a footfall, larger ones with quick stops and starts, erratic, signs of playing. I imagine a small pup walking with it's owner, or a large dog playing with a ball or a stick. I see where birds have landed and run along the surf. I can tell the path that the snails have traveled by the traces they leave. Even things that don't move, the rocks and shells, leave a hollowed out space around them where the water has moved the sand away. Everything can make an impression.

I look back over my footsteps. They are even and closely spaced. When I look way back over the beach I notice where I jogged and twirled, I see I have been weaving a little, walking toward a puddle, around a rock. I can remember the feelings of the slow time and the time of dance – the exhilaration of whirling with my arms in the air. If you were to look back over the footprints of your past what would you find? Think about it for a moment. Are there running steps? Softer footfalls? What other marks parallel or join yours? Are you stepping in another's tracks? Whose? What are you walking toward, away from or around? Is it how you wanted it to be? Can you see where someone carried you?

Winter, sometimes it's the winter of my soul, a quiet time for greater insights, to look over where the currents of life and the marks of others and the steps I chose have formed me. It's also a time to discern what my mission is. Uncover my deepest longings. A time to decide from the inner promptings: Who am I? Where do I go? Who do I travel with? What do I love? How do I step on this earth? And what do I leave behind?

It came to me that the beach is new each day, a blank sheet; where the tide has washed it smooth for-giving me a new beginning. I have a fresh start daily to discover who I am, to make my marks and to leave the imprints of my choosing …to dance with Life…to dance grace-fully.

Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you. Phil 4:9

By Lynn Durham