Thalassophile

I only currently learned the meaning of this strange sounding word. Thalassophile, someone who loves the sea, ocean; a lover of the ocean. This is me. 

I absolutely love the beach. The first and last time I ever went, I was 16. We were driving down the highway, entering the town and you could instantly smell the change in the air. It was Salty and I loved it. It almost instantly makes you feel so relaxed. I start to sit up straight into my seat and stick my head out the window, trying to find the ocean between cars and buildings. 

I see it.

Beautiful, blue and endless. Seemed so unreal that beyond the water, was more water. The ocean made me feel as if nothing else mattered at that very moment. All that mattered was my pure excitement and feeling so anxious that I couldn't sit still. 

We finally pull up to the hotel and everyone loads out of the car and gets ready to take there stuff up to their rooms. I leave my stuff in the car and head straight to the beach. I hurry to the board walk and I whip out my old school digital camera. I take a picture of the dunes, the board walk, the ocean from every angle I can think of, as I am doing this, I am slowly making my way to the water. I didn't want to rush how it would feel that very first time I put my feet into the ocean. To many, I was probably being a drama queen and being overly excited but this was a huge deal for me. I had never been there so I was soaking up every opportunity that I could. I walk into the water and I just start there. I take a picture of my feet because apparently that is what everyone does, and then I just stood there. 

It was so warm, so calming, almost intoxicating. Call me an oceanholic if you will. 

This was back in 2009, and the memory has never left me. After graduation, I always planned on going back but with life, financials and now children, we always pushed our beach plans to the back of the list. I hated that we never took time out to relax at the beach as a family, but things just come up. Whether it be our car broke down, we were behind of bills, more car problems, it seemed never ending. Once again this year, we decided not to go to the beach because both of our vehicles were having problems. So while my sister, her family and our friends we having fun at the beach, I sat behind my phone screen and enviously watched their videos and pictures go across my feed. I am not going to go through this feeling for the rest of my life. I need to go back. 

It has taken literally 5 years of convincing but I finally have my husband talked into moving to the south. Not particularly to the beach but at least the beach will be even closer than it is now. It may not be this year, it may not be next year, but we are moving and I am beyond excited to see where this will take us. 

I can't wait for more sunshine, southern hospitality, warm days and shorter, if any winters! Everyone believes in something and I believe in moving to the beach. So we are going to make this happen.

"The Ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul." -Wyland

Coudersport Rocks On Project

At first, I thought this activity would be just like Pokemon Go. It would start out so popular and then would fade out after a little while. I should have known that this would be different because this gets children together with friends and family to simply paint rocks or to put nice sayings on them to hide around town for others to find and then to rehide them. Everyone has been so positive about this movement. I thought, why not. Lets go for a walk and search for some rocks. It is basically like an easter egg hunt but with rocks. How hard could it be? Well, we went for our walk and we searched and searched. I was getting a little annoyed. Maybe people weren't getting into it as much as facebook let on. Then we got to the Elementary School play ground and Milly said "we going to find pretty rocks?" I said hopefully. Let's go and look! After a few minutes, she found her first rock. It was yellow and orange. She was so excited over a little rock. It was adorable and funny at the same time. I watched her play all over the play ground and never once did she put that rock down. She was even showing it off to some of the other children there. I started to think, geez, the kids really do have fun with the simplest things. The next day we started painting some rocks of our own to hide that same night. We used regular paint with a sealer and some old nail polish that we had lying around. That night we took another walk up to the Elementary school and we started to hide them. I was even having fun hiding the rocks.

I love that this community has adopted this fun activity to get kids out of their houses and looking for rocks. It makes it like a fun scavenger hunt for both adults and kids. I see a lot of people asking to bring certain rocks into their business so that they can get a free ice cream or seeds, etc. I love how everyone is being so supported of this. Some people even came up with the idea that while they are out searching for rocks that if they see trash on the ground that they will simply throw it away or recycle it. People have started walking with gloves and a trash bag so while their children are "hunting" they will be cleaning up our town. It warms my heart seeing everyone get together and having such a fun time with their children and friends while being out on their search.

One thing that really upsets me though, is hearing about a lot of people trying to ruin the fun. I have heard three different stories of strange men approaching children and following their mothers around when they try to leave. It makes me uncomfortable because most moms are walking by themselves while their partners work. Well, recently I went on a walk with a new friend just so we would not have to walk alone and we could use the "buddy system" all while helping our children find some rocks. I loved the idea of making a new friend so easily, but under the circumstances it just got me upset because now in our small little town we don't even feel safe walking to certain parks because the men may be waiting. Taking advantage of such an innocent activity and using it for themselves is repulsive and with social media being so popular, I know they can access whatever they need in order to find the most popular locations and what not. So remind your children to not talk to strangers. I understand they are young but persistence is key. Also make a habit of not being on your phone the whole time and watch your children. Anything can happen.

 Another story I heard was teenagers taking whatever rocks they can find and throwing them away or putting them in inaccessible places for children basically trying to take the fun out of it. I don't understand because when I was a teenager, you would have seen me out looking for rocks and rehiding them as well; maybe it is because I am a kid at heart, I don't know. I just don't see how someone can purposely take the fun away from innocent children just to look cool in front of their friends. Let kids be kids. Let them have fun. They look forward to this searching for rocks and rehiding them for others. 

So just remember, this activity is all for fun. Be kind, be fair and have fun! Happy Hunting!