The Sea and Thee

by LaVerne Thompson

I took my girls to the beach for a few days of rest and relaxation before they disappear for their internships this summer and before my oldest goes off to college orientation and then off to college. Well the few days turned out to be anything but relaxing.

While we were there the weather was absolutely beautiful, hot but with a breeze on the beach to cool you off perfectly. But the first full day on the beach, about halfway through our fun in the sun, we heard the shrill whistle of the lifeguard. I sat up as did my girls and we looked toward the water. At first we couldn’t see what the fuss was about and glanced back at the lifeguard who was frantically waving her arms for the swimmers to come back in. That whistle and those hand motions will become commonplace over the course of our stay, along with the cries of HELP HELP WE NEED HELP OVER HERE! In two days we witnessed 4 separate rescues. One involved a father and his 5 year old, and another rescue required 4 lifeguards to jump into the water.

The scary thing was these folks didn’t get caught in riptides, oh no, but the illusion of safety that sandbars out in the water place on our psyche. When swimming we’ve always been told 2 things that stuck with me: check to see if anyone else is as far out in the water as you are, and the second turned out to be the most important, check your distance from shore. If you can’t swim it don’t do it.

There was a sandbar pretty far out into the water so if you were in certain areas you could walk from the beach right out into what should have been deep water, but instead was only waist high. Unfortunately in some areas that sandbar dropped suddenly and the inexperienced found themselves literally in way over their heads.

So now I need a vacation to get over the last one. Perhaps back to the ocean albeit a different place. But no matter the body of water I will respect the sea.

LaVerne Thompson

Aka

Ursula Sinclair

Lavernethompson.com

Ursulasinclair.webs.com

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