I continue to engage nature in the morning as more closures and shutdowns make me appreciate the gifts that we often take for granted. This morning my journey took me to Long Branch where I assumed I could walk the boardwalk early with little distractions and adhere to social distancing. What I found was a clear direction that the boardwalks and roads were closed yet the beach was opened.


How then does one travel to the beach without access to the roads or boardwalk? You don’t. You breathe in the fresh air, look at the beauty of the ocean waves and exhale. In my spirit, I know that this will end but now, as I look at the endless ocean, it seems as if we have been sheltering-in-place for an eternity. In reality, it’s been days, that has turned into a few weeks, soon that will aggregate to months.

I look at the ghost town near the boardwalk – it’s surreal. Nothing man-made is moving. Then I turn back to the ocean, it is reassuring that nature understands her role; she will continue to raise her daughter the sun and calm her son the moon until the dawn of humanity’s sorrow has passed. We will once again be on the boardwalks and mother nature’s sand will once again be under our feet — not just in our sight.
