Ocean City Sunrise

Thin red lines began to form along the edge of the horizon, where the ocean and sky meet. A hint of brightening cerulean blue quietly spread above me. No sun yet, still too early, but it was coming. The water would hit the beach and spread with as much energy as it could muster, like lover’s hands stretching for the unseen sheets in their dreams, then pull back the sand, revealing the very nakedness of the shoreline exposed to the waiting light. I looked to the point where the sun was just starting to wink above the waves, as the tide began surge, red lines blurring into a fiery orange and gold.

  Rocking back and forth on the blanket, trying to get comfortable for the big event, sitting was becoming annoying and a part of me wanted to wade along the backwater and sea foam. Not envying an accidental horseshoe crab discovery in doing so, I kept pushing the sand down until I could bear with the low back pain. My body has been through enough over the years, but having a soft place to sit and see the solstice moment, in the legendary green flash the Atlantic was keen to provide at the sunrise with the high tide, I was willing to deal with it. 

It has been years since I have been to the Delmarva coast. My soul was found here when I was twelve years old, in a moment like this, that God speak people tell others about but receive only quizzical looks and blatant shuns for such drivel. What would they know and what would they care? My heart knows, and I know too, that in that holy instance, where what we know of this world and our worlds within, transforms into a star-crossed moment with the Universe, a deployment of the Spirit everlasting. I can still hear the dolphins splashing about and gulls awaking to the daylight, even though the sounds of Ocean City begin to rise with beginning of the day. Where I am now was dunes and empty coastline forty-four years ago; now, it’s a tragic blend of human expansion with abandonment and disregard for nature itself. Change has been hard for me but it has made me a better woman, a strong spirit, and surprisingly resilient. Time helps make those changes and changes find the time to do just that in all lives, even if it does take years and many more lifetimes after those times too.

Here comes the big event now!  The turquoise brilliance blending into the waterline to the very easternmost extent my eyes can focus on. The rhythmic undulation of the waves seems to announce the arrival of the greatest star in the solar system as we know it. I no longer hear the hot dog carts clanking down the boardwalk to load their wares, to give twelve-dollar hots dogs and eight-dollar cans of beer to the first customers of the day, the price increasing as the day continues. I no longer sense the damage in my low back, from flying tackles on felons, wild horse rides, motorcycle wrecks, and plain old bad shoes. My eyes see only the most incredible summer moment there is, it lasts only seven seconds at best.

A mighty push from deep within the sea brings a wave right up to my blanket and toes. I don’t dare move as the sand dampens and starts to recede. Another wave slides to my left, inching into my space but stopping short of licking my fingers with its salty tongues, foam bubbling and popping like tiny dragons to intimidate me. The heat of the day is starting to be noticeable; the funk of humans, animals, and trash is beginning to remove a little bit more of the romance I have in the coming attraction. A taste of honey yellow brightness dribbles along the seam of the sea- now! The ocean lights up! The bright jadeite green hue runs out faster than a filly at Pimlico in the reserve race, dances on top of the tidal surge, and is gone. Nothing more, the event has been achieved and the waves have come to drag me in with them.

I came two thousand miles away to have this one chance to see this. To hold the sun in its glory, as it comes from below to illuminate the life beneath it in its glow, this is what I have lived for to see one more time before I went back home. To hold that sacredness of light in my heart, to feel the presence of God in the rising of the sun and the marriage of sky and water. This is all I wanted, to reaffirm the beauty of the world in a single split second of love, given in the first light of the day. Returning to Denver on the next flight out of Baltimore in a few hours will be hard but I saw the day begin on the summer solstice, I witnessed the moment I remembered years ago, when I danced with God along the water’s floor and felt the love of the whole world when I didn’t know if there was any for me at all.

The sky is an amazing robin’s egg blue and the sun is burning into my skin as I pick up the half-soaked blanket and the cold, empty, coffee cup next to me. It’s becoming a bar at closing time now; everyone makes their last call and prepares to make their way out. The fishermen are pulling in their lines and rods before the tourists roll out and bother them about what they caught, or didn’t catch. The gulls are already dive bombing the invisible vinegar and salt French fries under the wooden slats near me, errant dog owners letting their pets sniff the trash barrels that haven’t been dumped yet by the city. The music of the arcade pierces the chaos with its own miserable monotonal hurdy gurdy calamity, from speakers held together with silver duct tape and old wire hangers. Somewhere in all of this is a sacred calling, the need to be seen and recognized in the madness that defines our modern and sophisticated lives. Somewhere someone like me is waiting to dance with God in the first light of summertime, to know and feel love again and again and again….