Earn Your (Nautical) Stripes

The title up there has little if anything to do with today's post.  I often title these posts before I really do much writing, and I don't always know when I get started where things will go.  Nothing says nautical quite like red and white stripes.  Come to think of it, I suppose that combo could also say winter peppermint at a different time of year.  But, for the present, they're the stripes of the salt spray, the seagulls, and summer.  Throw in a cute Popsicle print, and this is an ideal dress for a hot July day by the water with a little picnic and a little soaking in the sun before cooling off in the water.

In the last few years, coming out to places like this one has become very popular.  (Oh my gosh!  What Happened to the Font?!  I can't fix it, so let's just ignore it and move on.)  And, in the last few months, people seem to be fleeing the cities (reminds me of the stories about the medieval plague years) in the hopes of escaping violence and illness, never realizing they are often just bringing those things with them.  I miss the days when no one knew about these little hideaways, when the world seemed like a bigger place.  For now, my family and I still usually have this one to ourselves, but it is getting awfully crowded in our "neighborhood" and sadly with people who claim to want to get away from the city and live in this wilderness and yet who have no respect for this natural beauty.  

When I was a little girl and we had 100 acres of woods and streams and ponds to spend all summer exploring, I remember spending entire afternoons up to our necks in the water.  We played games or just floated and talked and after hours and hours we finally sloshed out of the water and walked the miles home, so hungry it felt like our navels were rubbing on our backbones.  We never thought to bring food or a change of clothes.  We lived in those moments, fully present and immersed in the joys of summer freedom and each day as it came.  We left only foot prints and didn't even bother taking photos, we made memories instead.

I wonder now at how the world has changed.  I don't know many children who pass their summers away in wild freedom like that.  And I don't know many people young or old, who just decide to go and then go without hours of planning and thinking ahead and counting every minute until they go back to whatever they've left behind.  And it grieves me to come to some of my old favorite hideaways like this and see them littered with dirty diapers, food trash, animal waste, etc.  Left by people who are used to having someone else clean up after them?  I don't know, but it is tragic to see this beauty so marred by the people who seemed to value it so much they left a life behind to be here.

I'll admit, it's gotten harder for me too to just pick up and sail off on a whim, but it's still possible.  And it's even harder, but still possible, to just put away all my thoughts for what's next and just be in the moment--or the afternoon--away from it all, but I'm determined to go on trying.  And sometimes when I see the way that people are harming this area, I am tempted to run away to someplace a little less crowded, a place where living is a little more thoughtful and deliberate, and where nature's beauty is appreciated and preserved.

Do you think that sort of place exists anymore?  Will you tell me if you find it?  Does this all sound silly?  It won't sound so silly if wild places of this sort do disappear.  So, let's not let that happen!  I'll do my part and you do yours.  I will keep my own little slice of nature clean and cared for, both the part I own and the part that is open for all to enjoy and you do likewise.  When I come out here I take a bag with me and we clean up as much as possible.  It's a privilege to live here and it's a responsibility to care for it and respect it.  So, let's do just that and hope others follow suit.

Shopping Info:  Dress by Kling from ThredUp save $10 off your first order with my link.  Straw Fish Purse from ModCloth, Sunglasses from Shein, Flats from CharlotteRusse.