Life's a beach

Her feet buried in the sand and the water grazing her ankle. The wind bothering her hair and the birds being indifferent to her.

That's her on the beach. On a Tuesday or a Thursday. On a good day or bad day. During sunrise or post-sunset. That's her on the beach.

Like the plant that grows towards sunlight, her yearning for the beach grows stronger every day she is away from it. It's not a specific feeling, just an underlying itch that grows and grows till it occupies the mind.

She goes with friends, with her parents /kids, with her soul mate. Whoever she goes with, when the water touches her feet, she is alone.

Not lonely. Not the scared alone. The kind of alone that puts things in perspective.

She has 99 problems but the beach ain't one.

What is it about the beach? Scientifically it's just a stupid unending body of water following laws of physics and erosion.

But metaphorically it stands for the limit of our existence.

You might be drinking with friends on the beach, making love on the beach, or managing kids on the beach, there will be a moment that you sit and stare into the fading horizon. Staring without knowing why.

Science says life came from the sea. Millions of years ago, Primitive organisms that crawled out of the sea and learned to live on the land are our ancestors.

Is our urge to go to the beach, the collective earning / regret that we have as a species ...to go back home? Do we miss where we came from?

Does every cell of our being instinctively want to belong to the sea? Does every strand of our DNA remember what it feels like to belong in the sea?. Thousands of generations of our ancestors stood in the same spot as she stands now. Not knowing much about how anything works. Still transfixed by the sea. Still staring into the horizon.

Confused about where we belong.

Born of the sea, banished to the land.