Surfside Beach

Jul. 10, 2006 - Surfside Beach ...
Isn't it funny how one reminder can take you back to a place. Recently dad2three blogged about a trip to Surfside Beach in South Carolina. It is a lovely community ... much quieter than Myrtle Beach which is to the north and not as costly as Pawley's Island to the south!


This place holds many precious memories for me. As a 23 year old very confused, very spiritually rebellious college grad who was receiving her first tax refund check AND had never seen the ocean, I took my $750 ... packed a few clothes into my cool new-to-me gray Nissan Sentra with a pinstripe ... and headed to 'the beach" ... Just me and my map and my journal and my cash! I found one real estate office open, one small downstairs condo available called Sam's Down ... that afternoon I walked onto the beach and was reminded of just how small I was and how big God is! On that day I began a search for a God that I could reconcile in my academic-minded world. A world that tolerated everything and in which all lines were not only smeared, but sneered at as well. But during the very difficult times, I would be drawn back to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore and there was an overwhelming sense of God's presence. It was like an eternal baptism each time the waves came in to wash the shores. I can not look at the ocean without being taken back to that moment ... even the ocean sound that lulls AJ to sleep on restless nights rushes me back to that place. There would be many bumps in the road between that time and a true reconciliation with God, but in the mean time, I was able to make many more memories at Surfside Beach ...

about a year later, I sat with dear friends and daydreamed about "what if I marry Randy Brown" ... about 9 months after that I honeymooned with Randy in the same condo I rented on my first trip ... a couple of years later, we brought my niece Tisha to the beach for the first time ... she was very sad that we were having a baby and worried about how that would change her little world. Since then, we haven't been back. Life happened. I didn't return to teaching after AJ was born ... money was tight. Most of our trips to the beach were 'working trips' for some of Randy's clients that had beach property. Rick's pictures and words made me long for the full moon rising across the water as a storm began to roll in from the west on the evening Randy and I arrived ... for several hours, it was questionable which force would win out, the beauty and light or the dark, thick ominous clouds. And then, the storm began to build, the sea boiled in a way I had never experienced, and I was drawn to its rage. I think I will have to visit again ... very soon.