Criss-Crossy

It’s a holiday in India today which means a light meeting schedule. Add in the fact that it is a beautiful morning and that makes it a good day for a swim. Today feels a little more bright and cheery than yesterday. There are far fewer clouds - just a distant layer on the horizon and the ocean surface has calmed down and it is smooth and glassy.

Work issues are driving me nuts this morning and I am looking forward to getting into the water where I hope to at least temporarily extinguish these agitated thoughts.

I walk down the stairs to the beach and feel the warm sun on my back. Can I just keep walking here indefinitely? How about a month? A good solid month of this should do. Maybe then I’ll be ready to go back to work.

I watch the lines of swell roll in one after another. Surf is about the same size as yesterday but the waves are smoother and the angles are less criss-crossy. The water and sky is a deep rich blue that stretches out forever.

I walk out into the water which is pleasant and dive under a breaking wave and then just keep on swimming. I roll over the waves and point myself northwest toward Monarch point. With every breath I empty my mind and with each stroke I release my anxiety. There is just sun and water and sky as I gaze west into the horizon. I lose myself in the reflection of light bouncing off of the surface.

I pass the lifeguard tower, I pass several lobster trap buoys, I feel the waves passing under me. These are steeply angled waves that look like they could break soon even though they don’t. They still have a long ways to travel before reaching the shore. Three Arch Bay which sits on the other side of the point in front of me gets closer and closer but I will never see it - at least not today. I see houses lining all of these bluffs where people live their own private lives while I swim here living mine. We are all floating like asteroids in space, never intersecting until perhaps we do.

I get to the Monarch beach club, farther than I intended to swim but still not quite ready to turn back but I turn around anyways. I may not be ready until I reach Main Beach in Laguna or perhaps Crystal Cove and I certainly don’t have time for either. I lose myself in the view of the beach and random shrubbery along the bluff. I want to be a blade of grass or a sage bush. I’ll just sit on the cliff side in silence and merge with the light and let my identity wax and wane with the rising and setting of the sun.

The beach club is firmly in the distance behind me now, I have passed the long stairs leading to the northern bathrooms and I am in front of the large green lawn and snack bar which just don’t seem to move at all. Will I ever reach the lifeguard tower? Do I care? Well regardless, I eventually do. I reach the line of houses that sit over the north end of the Strand. It seems to take forever to pass the first couple and then the next 10 just seem to race by.

It is well past noon now and the breeze is still mellow and the water remains smooth. It’s low tide and I meet up with a set of waves that carry me to the final bit of shallow water where I pick myself up and head to the ramp. There is a small group of Sand Pipers that are running back and forth, in and out with the waves and up and down the beach. I head up the asphalt road and watch the waves that seem to roll in without a lull. As they approach, they all look like they are going to be larger than they actually are as they break close to shore.