It’s the ocean again. This time in a dream.

I found out two friends would be traveling there, and I silently imagined myself asking them if they would mind if I tagged along. Without the fare of gas, with a place to stay, without a family to care for. There would be nearly no expense. I imagined myself walking out on the shore, alone, staring at the sea. A cinematic moment where everything, even the waves and the one solitary gull, moves in slow motion.

Still dreaming, I remembered the baby, not yet sleeping through the night. How desperately he would cry for me. And I woke to his softly breathing body, pressed sweetly into mine.

There will be a day when I will once again walk the whole length of shoreline at the pace I choose. I will go alone. I will look into the distance and see the memory of my life. And I will remember this moment, in the middle of the night, when love washed over me like ocean waves.