Two of my favourite words!
As Autumn/Fall settles in around us, summer feels like a rapidly fading memory.
Yes, I know that the sun rises every morning but there is something healing on a soul level to be found from wandering along the beach on a warm summer morning watching the sunrise.
When did you last watch the sun rise up over the horizon? Stop and think about that for a moment.
Have you even taken the time to pause and watch sunrise?
I’ll confess it’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to fully appreciate sunrise. I’ve caught glimpses of it through the open bathroom window but that’s been it for quite a while. Something that I need to address in 2027.
Those who follow this blog regularly or who know me personally will already know of my love for a particular beach at sunrose so I apologise if I am repeating myself here.
A very long time ago, as a ten-year old girl, I fell in love with one special beach town. To this day, I have no idea why this particular place stole a piece of my heart but it did.
When it came to choosing a location for the setting of my first “book baby” Stronger Within, it was this town that I chose.
Throughout the Big Green Gummi Bear’s illness, I watched the sunrise at the beach via a local webcam and through social medial posts from local photographers. Those photographers don’t know it but they saved my sanity and gave me something to hope for. For their early morning ventures onto the sand, I will be eternally grateful.
My first holiday/vacation alone was spent in this small town. I’d made a promise to myself that after years of watching the sunrise online that when I could, I would sit on the beach and watch the sunrise for myself and I did…. several times.
There is something magical about wandering down onto the beach when the new day is just a glow on the horizon. The world around you feels clean and new. Walking across the expanse of soft sand towards the ocean, the sand is cool underfoot; a stark contrast to how it will feel later in the day when it feels hotter than the surface of the sun!
Walking along the beach barefoot on the hard packed damp sand with the occasional wave washing in over my feet, watching the sanderlings going about their day, keeping an eye out towards the ocean for dolphins and pausing every now and then to monitor the sun’s journey over the horizon is my ideal way to start the day.
It’s just a pity that that town with its beautiful beach sunrises is three-thousand miles away from where I live.
If I lived closer, I’d walk it every day.
Don’t get me wrong, you get gorgeous sunrises in Scotland too. (Just before any local friends moan at me) Many times in the past I’ve diverted off my route on the commute to work to capture a stunning sunrise shot. Pretty as they are, local sunrises just don’t have that bit of magic that makes my beach sunrises so special to me.
Last summer, as you’ll have seen from my California blog series (if you missed it scroll through my blog) I spent my summer break elsewhere. Watching the sunset at the skate park in Venice Beach was special. Those sunsets surrounded by skateboarders and palm tress were wonderful but I’ve a confession…. I missed my beach sunrise walks.
In an ideal world, I’d love a beach town that had those amazing skate park sunsets and mu magical beach walk sunrises but that’s not possible in the real world. (Yes, my beach town has nice sunsets before any of the locals from there complain but those sunsets don’t have skate park and palm tree magic…although yours do have bandstand magic.)
Now as dark mornings and dark evenings loom large on the horizon for the next few months, I’m already dreaming of summer 2027 and, if the planets align, dreaming of more sunrises spent walking on Rehoboth Beach.
