Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Friends in the Surf















There were few people on the beach this morning and nothing to block my far off view of two young women lying in the surf. The caution flags flew from the lifeguard station, and there were Portuguese man-of-wars all along the beach, but these friends had found a safe place. As I reached them, I heard them talking compatibly. They lay on their stomachs; the ocean washed over them. The water was cold, the sun warm. I could hear their light voices for a minute or two after I had passed them, an easy back and forth in the dissolving foam, the waves played out. I couldn't hear much of what they were saying. It didn't matter. The rhythm and sound of friendship stayed with me as I walked north.


13 comments:

  1. 'cornerstone of hope' alive.

    please have a good wednesday.

    daily athens

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  2. God, you write so beautifully, poetically about nothing in particular, which is everything in general.

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  3. A lovely account of a view extraordinary for its every dayness and beauty. Two friends at the beach, lost in conversation cooled and warmed by sun and water. Thanks, Mim.

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  4. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore, mixed with the intermittent dialogue of bathers is one of my favourite memories of Cuba. Especially when you're lying down, dozing, book on your chest, soaking up the sun.

    Many thanks for such a beautiful post.

    Greetings from London.

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  5. mim,
    i love this post, took me right back to my teenage years, lying exactly like this, or afterwards, belly up, in the hot sand, with my friends...talking, talking...
    thank you!
    i miss you...when are you coming back north? i mean, i hope youre having a wonderfully restorative break--but it's almost spring!

    xxoo

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  6. Your loveliest blog. Your intimate observation is communal, tender and never intrusive -- a kind of participation in the lives of strangers, valuing and respecting -- so rare. I am grateful to have your blogs.

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  7. Hello, dear responders. Tender responses: I value them. And those tender passing moments.

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  8. Lovely post and beautiful photo. They look like mermaids visiting shore.

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  9. Oooh...a nice gay couple relaxing on the beach. It's nice that there's no one around to judge them.

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  10. Dear Mim - thank you for this image; gentle surf and your tender-true observations are especially appreciated at this time.
    Love to you in SoBe, Claire xo

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  11. You always catch the right and wonderful words after catching special and wonderful moments, even though one also easily could miss them.
    Thanks for your way of writing, which gives a smell of forgetting time.
    all the best smilla

    PS I'd love to walk at the beach my own...

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  12. Yes, though I wrote about a moment, it had seemed an escape from time, Smilla.

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