Perhaps more than any other feature of nature, my holidays are captured at the beach.

In Kingsport Nova Scotia, the red sand stirs up history of the Bay of Fundy and the tremendous tides that rise and fall some forty feet a day. What must this call of nature do to a soul that studied it as an infant?

So much of what we are compelled to desire arises from some place deep within, that we don’t question, and we don’t understand. I have a theory and although I have not done any studies to prove or disprove the hypothesis, I want to illustrate a story of my beliefs.

Where we are born and spend the first five years of our life, combined with that history in our genetic makeup, particularly arising in the experiences of our mothers and their mothers mothers leads inevitably to the desire we feel inside.

Nature vs nurture? I have spent most of my sociological career as a probation officer and the intimate study of people, today I have made a shift. I believe how we ‘act’ is a magic combination of the five people we hang out most with. Where we “live”, now, that is another study!

Remember in the fluff movie Sabrina with Harrison Ford being posed a question by the beautiful and thoughtful Julia Ormond…. “That’s what you do. Where do you live, Linus?” He is lost. Up to this moment he did not answer that question, and barely knew it was a question. He did what his father did and likely his fathers father before him.

My soul lives on the beach, pulled to waves of change as smoothly and in frequency with one of the highest tides in the world. My mother grew up on this beach. When I was being formed and birthed, this was my world. The sound of the sea was my lullaby. The scent of the sea forever triggers a sense of love and home.

When I travel the world, I seek out that soothing sound. I strip down my pieces of wardrobe for even a quick dip in the salt waters that cover most of the earths surface. I could literally float in natures womb all day …. Buoyant and supported with the unique fishy scent, constant movement, salty texture, subtle sounds of motion and change all surround me, taking me with it.

Tide in, tide out, wave up, wave down. Never the same, even for a flash of the photograph, the sea is alive. It breathes life to me and I return the favour.

The sand, the space where the sea meets the shore. The rocky surface made smooth by crashing waves and forces of millennia. The suns reflection sparkling and dancing on the surface movement. The moon pulling against gravity and showing who is boss in the wild reality of the salt water tides.

I am one with the sea and it welcomes me. In Europe, the islands, the coastal cities and villages …. I find my desire once again stirred as if I was home again. On cruise ships I find the ultimate vessel of transportation relying on that magnificent sea to take me safely to a new shore, a distant and sometimes exotic port of call. The sea remains my constant.

Where are you from? What force of nature calls you home? Where do you live?

Thanks for staying with me today while I write this …. You will no doubt find me at the waters edge, if you are looking to connect with me.

Pamela