July 7 - For Purposes of Spirit Lifting

As soon as I read this prompt the idea came to my head to finish the sentence so it became - "For Purposes of Spirit Lifting We Visited the Sea."  We live just a fifteen minute drive from Bodega Bay  (the place where Alfred Hitchcock filmed the birds).  The coast line is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life: rock cliffs, gray-blue water and we spend a lot of time there.  So, it made sense to me that someone seeking spirit lifting who lived here would pack up her wagon and head over the hill to Bodega Bay. But in a wagon it wouldn't have been such a quick, easy journey.  What for us is a fifteen minute drive took most of a day in a wagon.  So, it would have been a luxary to go.  Something that even though it was close, you could only do every once in awhile.  Here is my draft where I imagine what it was like to finally arrive at the sea.  

For Purposes of Spirit Lifting We Visited the Sea

Joe and I rest on the rocky sand in bare feet. He is restless.  He jumps up and runs as far down the shore as his tiny body will carry him. I let him run. 

I'm too tired to move and he is too filled with joy.In a few momments I see him, a tiny speck, racing the sandpipers as they run back and forth with each lace of wave.

A flock of heavy bodied pelicans soar over us.

The day is clear. So clear that everything seems possible.

My fingers find the debri that's washed up around me: blue flat stones, smooth driftwood, a single piece of abalone shell that seems to gather sun.
Sitting on the flat beach I see the rock lungs open and close with breath,


the cold blue expanse of sea rolls out with all that is carried under it all the way to the blur of horizon.