That Big, Pretty Place

Recently, I briefly visited my little granddaughter and her parents.  On a cool and windy afternoon, we went to the beach.  The ocean was, as always, impressive.  Steel colored, always moving, powerful.  My granddaughter took one look at it and made a decision: I want to be there, in that big pretty place.

She had only been walking for a couple of weeks, but she ran to the shore.  Her mother followed her, of course, and scooped her up just as she reached the water's edge.  She brought her a safe distance away from the water and set her down again.  As soon as my granddaughter regained her footing, she was off again, right arm extended, yelling a Tarzan yell.  Having raised seven children, I can interpret Infant, and she was saying, "I am going to get there no matter what!"

Her attentive mother scooped her up again at just the right moment and brought her back through the wind to set her down farther back on the beach.  But again, and again, and again, my determined granddaughter ran for the ocean. 

No matter that sand is hard to run on, no matter how hard the wind blew, no matter how many times she fell, she ran for it.  Every time.  The moment her feet touched the sand again, she was off. 

I looked at the ocean, stretched out there like a red carpet to another world, and I could see her point.  She had no concept that, had she actually made it into that water, it would have overpowered and killed her.  That was irrelevant.  She saw its majesty.  She saw its power.  She saw its potential.  She saw its beauty.  And she put all her will into being there.

It then dawned on me that this sight was exactly what I needed to witness.  That faith in the wonders of the goal place.  That determination to get there, no matter the obstacle. 

I snapped pictures and videos of what I was seeing and hearing. 

I took the pictures home with me and printed them.  Eight by ten shots of a tiny girl, arm outstretched, running with all her might toward her happiness.  And I posted them on my bedroom wall, so that I could look at them every day, while I make my run for the ocean.

I apologize to my readers.  I have been gone.  My mind has been busy for the past many months contemplating and executing a revolution in my life.  It has been full of many thoughts, but not many that I could at that time share.  But I am back.  Stronger and more determined than ever.

I am going to reach that big, beautiful place.  No matter what.