A Low Country Christmas With Waves on the Side

My dad's footprint on the beach

All of my life I have lived near water.  Most of the time it has been by rivers where the water route is pretty well planned.  Even though you made not always be able to see what is around the bend, but you have a pretty good idea.  And the flow of the river always makes sense - just try to keep it between the banks.  And if it rains or melts too much snow, the river makes the changes need to keep the river flowing.  A river makes sense to me - it knows where it needs to go and does.  What doesn't make sense to me?  Waves.

This past Christmas my family traveled to Charleston, SC, to have a "Low Country Christmas."  The trip was a great one filled with tours of the Charleston Harbor, downtown Charleston by horse drawn carriage and a tour of the Boone Hall Plantation - all of which I would highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Chuck Town.  My brother ate his weight in oysters and I was able to catch up with my friend, Amanda, who lives near by.  I also watched a group of cyclists enjoy the view of the beach from the road as they rolled by in the much warmer than Minnesota temps.

Folly Beach Pier

As much as all of these activities were a fun time, my favorite part of the trip was were we stayed in Folly Beach, which is just outside of Charleston.  Once again we were able to rent a condo from a home owner on VRBO.com.  We have done this in the past with great success with this year being no different.  Our condo was right across a parking lot from the ocean and Folly Pier - a place I visited every morning we were there. 

Many of the times I went to the beach, my dad accompanied me.  We would comb the beach for interesting shells and creatures while we walked and talked along the water.  But as we walked I would always find myself stopping to watch the waves roll in.  You see to me waves don't make sense.  The come and go as they please - some big, some small.  Some come in and bring water only a small way up the beach, others travel farther making you scatter up the beach as to not get your tennies wet.  Yes, yes, I understand that have to do with gravity and currents and the moon, blah blah blah.  But at the end of the day waves are weird.

Little gifts left by the waves

But as I watched the waves every day I started to notice certain things about them.  I noticed that no two waves were ever the same.  Some would come in mighty and loud and others would quietly spread across the sand.  I also noticed that when they would finally roll onto the beach they would always leave a line in the sand of where they ended.  Sometimes they would also leave some shells or jelly fish, but regardless you could see where they had been.  A wave foot print.

I think in our lives we feel like we are the river - rolling along our course and staying in our banks as we deal with anything that lies around the bend.  Then other times we get to experience some waves in our lives.  Moving water that doesn't make sense and seems to crest at unpredictable times, but things that leave marks in our memories.  Waves that bring something new into our beach that we may not have seen before.  In the river of life, every once in awhile we need to experience some waves.  Even if they don't make sense.