sylviane | 2014 07 22

So, how can I find serenity within myself?

I sit down, close my eyes and imagine that quiet place on the beach, where there's just me. I can hear the crying of seagulls, the sound of the waves hitting the shore and perhaps (way in the distance) I can hear children laughing. I can see the sea at sunset and there's small fishing-boats in the water.
If I try hard I can taste the salty air. There are rocks where the water breaks and on those rocks , at low tide, you can still find sea life in the shape of small crabs, mussels, oysters, colorful anemones and little shrimps. I know that, if I would get in the beautiful blue water at daylight and at high tide, and if I would snorkle somewhat around, I will see even more life on those rocks.
I love the peace of the place, the emptiness of the beach and how big the ocean is. I can lose myself in the near-silence. And I can enjoy the peace that comes inside of me.

I love that beach. It isn't suprising that this image is a memory of my summer-holidays in Brittany, France. Perhaps a little enhanced by my desire to make it perfectly peaceful, but in general it's fairly accurate. I've had my best holidays ever there. Even today, thinking about it, the memory makes me smile and it fills me with warmth. It is as if I can still feel the warm sun on my skin and then I remember walking barefoot on the hot sand.

Was it perfect? Heck no! But those summers of 1977, 1978 and 1979 are engraved in my mind because of my first and only 'summer-love'. Of drinking hot chocolate in a bowl that my father gave me every morning to drink quietly in my tent, while trying to wake up. It is the place where we picked mussels from the rocks, which we would eat at night.

My dad bad a small boat, my uncle had a fishing-net, and in the morning we would go out and throw out the nets and pick it up against the next days so that we would have fish to eat. We ate a lot of fish those days... I still love eating fish. :)

The memory of those summer, on that particular part of the beach, puts me in a safe and peaceful place.