Building a sand castle is no little task for my sisters and I. We dug untill we hit water- and lots of it ( a sand castle is nothing short of an embarrassment unless it begins with a huge, deep hole with water at the bottom). We then mounded, compressed and molded the wet sand into some of the most intricate and unique architectural designs that you have ever seen. We created a whole city for some imaginary people with towers, moats and spiral stair cases. Anything our brains could cook up -we made and the options were endless. We installed tunnels, designed gardens, and then created waterfalls through the middle of it all just for effect. After hours of work and tons of sunburn, we were always so proud of our creation. In fact we would bring down our chairs to the waters edge to guard them from any other children taking them over and peeing in our holes ( yes, that is a thing). Now it was time to wait. We would sit there and wait for the water to come up and funnel into our little ( huge) castle cities following all of the pathways that we have scooped out for it. We would watch with excitement as the cold foamy waves rushed through our handy work- smoothing over the rough edges and filling all of the empty spaces with its salty self. All of our effort was worth these few moments .After a few waves we felt satisfied and we would go rinse off in the ocean. The tides are a funny thing because they never stop progressing or regressing- not even for three little girls who built the most beautiful sand castles.
Coming out of the ocean was always so upsetting. We would run right to where our castles were and there was never anything left of it except a sad looking lump and a puddle. Our hearts dropped. The amount of effort, time, thought, planning, and excitement that went into our creation left us feeling discouraged, frustrated, and deflated. Ok before you judge us- we were actually smart kids. We understood how nature works and how the waves never stop moving up or down the beach but putting so much of your heart into creating something to only have it taken away stung. Yes, this clearly was to be expected- for this is the way the world works, however our hearts hurt in an irrational but real way.
" Girls, you have a whole beach here! Go build another amazing sand castle!"
This was true. We did have a whole beach but the idea of starting over, starting from scratch to just in the end have the same result -gave us very little motivation to begin anew. We would kick around some sand and half heartily start to dig- but it was never the same. We never were inspired in the same way and we never really hit water.
Then sometime after lunch and before dinner. Somewhere between sand crab catching and ping pong something changes. " Wanna build a sand castle?" We exchange looks and before we know it we are back at it again. Creating and designing but careful not to do things exactly the same as last time -for the sake of keeping them special. It was slow at first but we realized that life goes on and therefore so must we. Refreshed and renewed we bulit not a replacement city but a different one. This one had characteristics that only existed because of the fate of our castles earlier that morning. Of course as we looked at our work in progress, we still longed for the stability of our other sand city but we were suddenly inspired with the blank slate we had before us. We proceeded with caution- guarding our hearts, and it took a little time to gain momentum but we built with the same effort, creativity and spirit as earlier that morning- and most importantly we hit water.
