The Beach

You're walking out on to a beach. You can smell the salty scent of ocean water wafting throughout the air. You feel the sand in between your toes, filling every gap there was between them. You keep walking and with every step, the sand feels warmer and warmer. But it never feels too hot. You walk until the warm water just barely brushes your feet. The water is the perfect temperature. It's so perfectly lukewarm, that you wouldn't even know it was touching you unless you could see it. A warm summer breeze blows. The exhilarating feeling of summer wind in your hair makes you feel invincible. You are invincible.

Nothing can hurt you. Nothing can make you sad, or angry or upset. In fact, you completely forget what those feelings feel like. You can no longer remember anything that had any of those feelings associated with it. The only thing you can feel is pure happiness. You don't know why, but you are elated. It seems, as if nothing bad will ever happen. You now live here, on this perfect beach.

You lay with just your legs in the water and feel the waves gently lapping up against your perfect skin. Usually, you would put on sunscreen because of your Irish complexion and very pale skin, but the sun has no effect on you, so there is no need. You feel the warm welcoming sand envelope your body. Usually you would be bothered by the sand in your hair and every other crevice in your body, but no one else is here to see it, and there is no mess that you are going to make by being this way, so you don't care. You lay with the waves welcoming your body, more and more, into the landscape with each crash.

You stay there for as long as you like. There is no time. No deadline. No numbers. There is no where you need to be; nothing you need to do. You can do whatever you want. Whenever you want. It doesn't matter what you do. The only thing that matters is that you stay happy. Nature is there to serve you.

Eventually, you stand up and begin to walk. With your messy, sand covered body, you begin to walk down the beach. Step, step, step, step...for as long as you like. You begin to notice that you are a little hungry. You think to yourself how much you want a mango. Instantly, a mango appears to the side of your feet. You pick it up and take a bite of the fleshy fruit without bothering to peel it. You devour the mango almost instantaneously.

With your stomach satisfied, you run toward the water. You run into it and begin swimming around in a small tide pool. You open your eyes under the salty water. It doesn't hurt, because pain doesn't exist. You look at a variety of beautifully colored fish. Some stripped, some with spots, some purple, some yellow, all sorts of fish. Any kind you can think of. Eventually, you get out and and begin to walk again.

For a moment, something slips into your head about someone, somewhere, who doesn't like you or is upset with you for some reason. Before you can let the thought progress any further, a beautiful rose petal falls from a cloudless sky. You pick it up and smell it. It is the most pleasant scent you have ever smelled, and you immediately forget your worries. Suddenly you hear a voice.

“IS YOUR HOMEWORK DONE YET?! WE HAVE TO LEAVE IN THREE MINUTES!”

You snap back to reality. You are back in your real life. The place riddled with worries, deadlines, expectations and people who want things from you. This is the place where nothing works right and nothing goes your way. You look at the ornate grandfather clock across from you. A mere minute and a half had passed. You get up and walk into the kitchen to get ready to leave. It is loud and chaotic with your little siblings turning your house into shear pandemonium. All you want to do is go back to that blissful minute and a half. You walk out the door, and trip on the way out. You fall flat on your face. In getting back up, you think to yourself that nothing will ever work and nothing will ever make you happy. But somewhere deep inside of you, that minute and a half left you with a feeling that maybe, just maybe, you can do it.