I’m on vacation with my family this week in South Jersey. I am sitting overlooking the beach as the sun is starting to set, looking for inspiration for this weeks blog. The sunrise pictured above came to mind. It was 6 a.m. and I had my 3 year old grandchild with me as we strolled to the beach to take in the “sun popping out of the water” as he described the sunrise that morning. It was. The crescent moon was still slightly visible and “smiling” at us I was told. Beautiful! But what was even more beautiful was the next few hours we spent on that empty beach together. He was in his striped pajamas. He had awoken and came looking for his “Grumpa” (me) to see if we could “go to the beach and play.” I did my grandfatherly duty and said YES, absolutely,” as we headed out at sunrise.
Once we acknowledged the splendor of the sun awakening out from under the covers of the ocean in front of us, we played. And played. Then played some more. Time melted. We had nothing other than what we were clothed in – PJ’s. We dug holes in the sand. We waved to the bulldozer driver who wandered past with his lights on as he evened out the sandpiles of the previous day in preparation for a new one upon us. We walked in the tracks he had left. We dove, no bellyflopped, into the sand. We did sand angels in the sand as we lay on our back flapping our arms. We laughed. And laughed. And laughed some more. We we covered in sand, pure joy, laughter and love… without a care or concern of getting dirty. When we were done the sun had fully “popped” and sat looking at us. The only thing I had spent was time. THE most valuable commodity we have. I returned home to shower a VERY rich man with my time well spent.