Cause down the shore everything's alright...

If I could live anywhere, I'd live at the Jersey shore - not the fist pumping Jersey Shore shore - but Strathmere, Cape May, Ocean City? I'd live there in a second. I grew up going to Ocean City, and through the years migrated to other shores: Sea Isle, North Wildwood, Cape May, Strathmere. Some of my best memories were made down the shore, and not to be new agey, but I feel very much myself there. MFD feels the same way, which is why we chose to get married down there.

The shore is laid back, easy, no fuss. Throw some clothes in a bag and go. I pack my beach bag with a big hat, long sleeves for when the wind turns between 3 - 4 p.m., sunblock, two books, crosswords, twizzlers, and plums or nectarines, and I'm content to be at the beach all day.

I like it when it's sunny or overcast. I like the beach in the spring, fall, winter. I like it when it's raining.

I love to travel to places I've never been, but when it comes right down to it, I'd choose the shore over any other destination. Every time I go down, I'm reminded of so many great times shared with people I adore. Since I'm heading down this weekend, here's a little through the years kaleidoscope.

The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.  

~Isak Dinesen

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

- e.e. cummings

hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky 

let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic...

~Van Morrison

A beach was a fine place to come to terms with all the cycles of the universe. 

~Pat Conroy, Beach Music

To me there has never been anything more evocative of 

summer and wildness and bittersweet joy than a sea wind. 

Anne Rivers Siddons, Outer Banks

In still moments by the sea life seems large-drawn and simple. 

It is there we can see into ourselves.

~Rolf Edberg

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is 

the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, 

that is the interior of the soul. 

~Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, 

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, 

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, 

Let me forget about today until tomorrow. 

― Bob Dylan

The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. 

It defies all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. 

No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can't.

~Christopher Paolini, Eragon

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

-- T. S. Eliot

We'll be making more shore memories this weekend with Amanda and Frank.

It's nice to have something to look forward to in the middle of the week, no?

Wishing you all a stellar Wednesday,