I Will Carry You

It’s that time of year when what semblance of a tan I had over the summer starts to fade, and I start longing for the beach again. 

I am pale.  Really pale.  I mean that some brands of makeup don’t make a color pale enough for me.  So it doesn’t take much for me to feel tan.  I can feel all wonderful and sun-kissed and people will still say, “Really?  You call that tan?”  Ha.  Be jealous of my china doll skin.

July.  I hit three beaches in one week.  How blessed is my life?  Cocoa, Rehoboth, Cape Henlopen.   Cocoa Beach was just about the best day of my entire summer.  My friend Kim and I had traveled to Orlando together for a weekend-long sales conference.  And to call it just a sales conference is really selling (ha!) it short.  We stayed at a fabulous resort.  We made new friends.  We networked in the pool.  Really, we networked IN the pool.  We got dressed up for a fancy party.  We rubbed elbows with celebrities.  We sat in a room of six thousand people in tears by the end of the day Sunday.  Happy tears over what the future holds.  We got inspired.

Monday morning we were two girls on a mission.  Goal for the day – toes in the sand.  We rented a car and headed for the ocean.  Cocoa Beach.  How can you not love a place called Cocoa Beach?  It’s cocoa AND it’s a beach!  We parked at Ron Jon’s, Kim bought a beach towel, and then we were there.  Sand, surf, sun, wind. 

Now the primary goal was enjoying some beach time, but we did have some work to do.  Planning, list-making, phone calls, texting some updates to our team back in Ohio.  For those of you who saw the Facebook pics, yes, we did in fact do work on the beach.  Of course when you’ve finally found something you love to do, it doesn’t seem so much like work.

My live list.  One of my mentors says you should have a live list, not a bucket list.  I sat on my beach towel and wrote out my live list on a scrap piece of paper.  Places I will travel, things and experiences I will have, people I will help.  I read my list out loud to Kim, and we had trouble getting through it without tears.  I have big goals.  It’s why I do what I do.

With some work out of the way, I walked down to the waves and waded in a couple feet to cool off.  I love the sound, the smell, the whole feel of the beach and the ocean.  It helps put everything in perspective.  I just stood there, watching the waves roll in.  Enjoying the peace and serenity.  Marveling at the power of the ocean.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you don’t actually hear the voice of God speaking, but there’s a phrase or word so clear in your mind that you absolutely know where it came from?  I would have worded it differently, so maybe I need to write something on the topic of surrender-and-who-really-knows-best in the future, but I offer it up here verbatim. 

I have the power, and I will carry you.