Interlude

From August 2006

Our favorite beach has a long set of stairs that leads up to the bathrooms and a snack bar, as well as to several benches that line the edge of the grassy plateau overlooking the beach below. Ever since we've gone to this beach, one of my lunchtime rituals has been to climb the stairs and place an order of chicken strips and onion rings to augment the sandwiches and grapes we packed in our cooler.

After placing the order, l go over and stand at the top of the stairs or sit on one of the benches - and I look down at the beach below. 

I listen to the sounds of the waves and of the kids playing and I think about what a depressing place this would be, to come back here someday, old, without kids, and look down at nothing but ghosts and fading memories. 

And I would wonder, how many more years we would be able to spend this kind of time together. 

And, as with many other moments in my life, I would think about how I better enjoy this moment. It may never come again.