“By the Sea”
“The salt air cleansed his inner being. The reach and breadth of the ocean reminded him of matters grand and everlasting. The recurrence of the waves, their plashing, first hard and loud, and then soft and whispering, lulled his soul like a mother’s lullaby. Thousands of minute mirrors signaled urgent messages to whoever might be watching. Comforters of lilac-colored ice plant draped dun cliff faces, not quite reaching to the places occupied by sharp boulders silvered by the morning sun. Sea lions yelped their peculiar clown-horn barks; gulls circled and swooped; uncanny brown pelicans grew majestic as, wings outspread, they rode the thermal updrafts.”