A walk on the beach

Early last December I went back to a place I hadn’t been for a long time. It was like walking through a kaleidoscope of happy memories filled with colour and light. I felt like a pirate returning to familiar shores to retrieve my treasure. Dr Seuss said it this way, ‘Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.’ My treasure chest was full. Everywhere I looked memories sparkled like precious gems.

 

My brother, John and I on Huskisson beach

All my childhood holidays were spent at Huskisson with my family. It was here we swam in the sea, built sand castles, collected shells and explored rock pools. My father taught me how to fish at the wharf. I remember the bucket with our cork hand reels, the fishing knife, the small plastic box with compartments that held hooks and sinkers and the bait wrapped in old newspaper. What I especially remember are my father’s hands, the way his finger listened for a bite. 

My grandparents, Mumma and Jack had a house right on the beach and from their large front window we looked out over Jervis Bay. There is a particular weight and rhythm to the sea on this beach. I remember being lulled to sleep at night listening to the waves slapping the shore.

 

Huskisson beach 2013

I walked on the beach and I walked back in time. As the water gently lapped and foamed around my feet all the memories came, they rolled in and out like the sea. It is the sixties again and I can see and hear and feel all the energy of that time and season of my life. The beach is just as I remembered it, the sand soft and white, freckled with shells.

 Something magical and healing happens to me when I am near the sea.  I’m not sure how or why, but I feel it. All my senses come alive.  I breathe deeply and not only are my lungs filled but I feel my heart expand too.

There is such a strong sense of family in this place, I am connected to my past here.  The young girl I was then is still who I am today. The things I loved are part of me, they still hold the same wonder and awe and sooth my soul. 

Huskisson beach 1930   Jack left with his sister, 'Trig' playing the fool, far right his other sister, 'Cook'

Huskisson was Jack’s paradise. He brought us here and gave each one of us this heritage.  What made this December ‘walk on the beach’ so special was having my family there. I watched my Dad teach his grandchildren how to fish. I felt the excitement and wonder of an evening walk on the beach watching my little nieces and remembering when I ran with the wind in my hair.  My brother and I danced to Christmas music in the kitchen with Mum and Dad. I swam in the sea and I don’t really know that I can find the words to describe how this made me feel - I didn’t want the moment to end.  I gathered more happy memories than sea shells! 

Dad in the green hat teaching his grandchildren how to fish

Knowing what I know now I recognise the gift I can give my children. I can teach them how to be happy, how to fill their own treasure chests by being happy myself.  I am not the source of their happiness but I can be an example of it by the way I live, full of life and energy and gratitude.