Sunrise, sunset

I am at the beach.
Days fleeting, seemingly like waves, as they wrinkle the sea, then dissolve into foamy bubbles on the shore.
One after another.
Endlessly.
So it is that I am thinking of time’s passing, of how to hold on to each and every day, even as it is ever evanescent.
Even as each is a precious gift, swiftly come, then gone.
Like the ocean’s waves.
I wake in the early morning and tiptoe to the window to look out at the sea, the sky, a canopy of soft gray that slowly turns to pale pink then blue, the water, a shining mirror reflecting the dawn’s new light.
And then, late in the day, as evening falls, I watch from the beach as daylight makes its glorious exit, a flourish of brilliant fuchsia, coral, scarlet, ablaze in the night sky.
And then, poof, the light is gone.
Only to return come morning.
And morning comes.
So it goes, each day, each year, then another, as do our lives.
Especially poignant as our days spool out, as we count the years, as we contemplate a new one beginning.
So it is that our wedding anniversary comes just as we arrive at the beach.
We marvel at the years spent together, many more than those spent apart.
We were so young, so in love, not an inkling of what marriage truly meant, save our parents long and loving unions, which we did not appreciate as much then as now.
It was only later, as the years passed, did we marvel at their good fortune, and then ours, to meet and marry.
And the closeness that comes with each year passing, with each day together.
That grows, with each child birthed, with each grandchild that comes into this world. With each who becomes their own little self, their own person.
And we wonder at our good fortune, especially as the lazy days at the beach bring visits from our kids and their kids, to spend time, to catch up, to kick back, to talk, to just look up at the sky and out to the sea.
And the ebb and flow of the waves, the rising and setting of the sun.

And the endless waves passing.
Especially as a new year beckons, as the month of Elul reminds us of the passing of time and the need to reflect on how we spend it.
To appreciate where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we are going.
And be grateful for it all.
Sunrise to sunset.
For swiftly flow the days, swiftly pass the years.