Walking by the Sea
On the particular peace of being alone with the ocean — and how solitude, on the right day, can feel like company.
There’s a specific kind of music you only hear the first time when you’re walking by the ocean alone. The song was always there. The conditions for noticing it weren’t.
Walking by the sea with my headphones
Finding music heard for the first time
My feet entrenched in sand
A sunset for the ages
I am alone
But it doesn’t feel that way
I feel alive and connected to Earth
A peace in solitude and nature
Harmonizing my soul with sound
The trick of solitude is that on the right day, in the right place, it stops being lonely and starts being spacious. The ocean isn’t pretending to keep you company. It’s just so vast that the loneliness has nowhere to land.
That’s the gift. Not the absence of people. The presence of everything else.
— JTC