The sea and me…
Took myself off kayaking for an hour and a half this afternoon. Just me and the empty sea, a few pelicans, some cormorants, gulls and the very occasional whiffle of wind.
I had forgotten what real solitude is like – no emails, no phone calls, no guilt from a house to clean or dogs to be amused.
No anxiety about selling a house or a grain truck bogging or the imminent departure of my husband for Asia or even writing a novel about a minstrel called Tobias.
I thought of nothing.
Nothing except how nice it would be if a pod of dolphins turned up or maybe a Southern Right whale on its annual migration. Other than that, I truly was a ‘bear of little brain’.
I dressed warmly…
Feet in thick diving boots.
Hands in thick diving gloves.
Three layers on top, two layers underneath.
And the sea that unfolded beneath my hull like unblemished satin…
To be followed at the end of the kayak by warm layers inside – hot chocolate and marshmallows.
A gift of an afternoon.
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