Stormy Beach

Just a couple of weeks ago we had pretty bad weather here in Perth. It was very windy, and even though the sun shone through the storm clouds occasionally, we still had a lot of rain and stormy weather.

At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, just as the day started getting a little less light, I suddenly had this urge to go outside and RUN. Now, I have always been quite sporty, but I haven’t been running for quite some time. And I had not been doing much sport for quite a while either. Nevertheless I had this feeling that I had to get out into the strong wind with a possible shower and a little bit of sun and get my blood pumping and my thoughts and lethargy blown away.

Naturally my run led me straight down to the beach. I had my ipod with my favorite music going. Just before I got down to the beach I had to stop at the toilet block near the playground to shelter from a strong shower. When it was blown over, I went on and got down to the water.

I was the only person on the beach. The waves were pretty high. The sun was close to setting behind a lot of clouds, but you could see it shining through in yellow orange. The wind nearly blew me away. And my favorite tunes were playing in my ear. It was TOTALLY UPLIFTING, MIND-CHANGING, AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL. I stood facing the water and the sunset with my arms outstretched to the side. Like I wanted to embrace the whole world. I took deep breaths. And felt like I was cleansed, uplifted, and everything was all right. I felt so small, but so fullfilled at the same time.

I started running, jumping, dancing along the beach, from one jetty to the other. I can’t describe the feeling. I went totally wild – there was nobody to watch and think how crazy I was! The only encounter I had was with a flock of pelicans on the beach. It was EERIE – the wind, the sun, the clouds, the beach, the waves, the pelicans, especially when one lifted up in the air and sailed on the wind not 4 meters away from me. I never felt so close to nature.

Needless to say that this was the best run I ever had in my entire life. I felt cleansed, revived, calm, ready to take on the world when I came back home. The stormy beach had lifted my heart.

P.S. The beach in the picture is not “my” beach; unfortunately I did not carry a camera with me at the time. If I did, I think the experience would not have been as great as it was, as I would have been concentrating on taking a picture of the beach and the pelicans.