We now live one hour from white sandy Gulf coast beaches. I've been waiting for this for years! The kids grabbed their beach toys and suits and we drove to the Mississippi coast. The beaches were pretty with sea gulls and pelicans all around. We had the whole expanse to ourselves...except for the large groups of workers cleaning up from the oil spill. The kids ran up and down the beach and threw sand and chased the waters edge...just barely missing it. They wanted to know why they couldn't get in the water.
We walked to a gas station to get something cold to munch on and asked the lady at the cash register about getting in the water. She said, "They say it will be at least a year before it's safe to get in here again, if the oil leak stops today. I love this place. I grew up here, but I'm moving now. It'll never be the same and I'm scared what's going to happen when the next hurricane comes. It's sad." Ironically, it turned out she was moving to the same area of Tennessee that we just left.
What a reality check! We've stayed current with the news of closed beaches and long term effects of toxic oil, but until you bring your kids to the beach and see it just as big and amazing as ever, but you're scared to touch it...I guess it never seemed real until now. We're hoping that life on the coast is more resilient than we realize. We're hoping to bring our kids back to the beach next year for a swim.
Until then we're exploring and touching the fragile beauty that we can.
