I watched the family next to us from the corner of my eye as I pretended to play with the sand in front of me.
I can’t help it – I’m a people watcher.
A happy couple and their two beautiful young girls had just arrived at the beach and picked a spot a few meters away from us.
They spread out their beach towels, and the girls impatiently waited as their parents rubbed sticky sunblock all over their faces, their backs, their shoulders.
“Can we go play now?!” One of the girls asked. You could hear the excitement in her voice.
“Yes, of course” her mother replied.
The girl raced towards the direction of the ocean, sand spraying up from her feet with every step, arms spread wide as if she was a bird about to depart into the heavenly blue sky.
She jumped into the water without a single ounce of fear, giggling uncontrollably and splashing her sister who had run in behind her.
I witnessed total happiness from these two girls.
I picked myself up from my place in the sand and found myself walking towards the waves.
I had tried earlier, but deemed it too cold to swim.
It was still cold – ice cold. I didn’t want to – but I took a few steps forward, then a few more – knee deep, then waist deep .. it was becoming this slow, cold and painful experience. I couldn’t get the cold out of my mind.
And finally, I just dived in.
And it felt good.
And I thought to myself about the two girls.
I thought about how they viewed the ocean as this big, fun playground while I had been viewing it as an extensive pool of cold water.
I thought about how children view the world beautifully, and how I should do the same.
It was inspirational :)
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Here are my photos from the day, I decided to try something new – a lot of black and white. I think it adds something to the photos, it makes them different from your average bright and colourful beach photos.
