Where the Ocean Meets the Sky

Sometimes on lonely nights I like to take a drive to the beach and stare out onto the water and think. Tonight, since I'm in Delaware and the closest "beach" is an hour and a half away--and not just a drive down Nicolls Road to Corey Beach, as it would be at home--I decided to drive to nearby historic New Castle, where Delaware Avenue collides with the Delaware River in a fantastic view of the Delaware Memorial Bridge that connects this small state with New Jersey.

I don't know exactly what it is about the ocean--or any body of water for that matter--that leaves me basking in wonder and amazement. It may be the salty air, or the marriage of land and water, or the infinite distance that is the horizon. Sometimes it is the reflections of streetlights or the light of the moon bouncing off the water, or the sound of the choppiness in the waves, or the 10-foot long reflection of my body being stretched along the water, a shadow being cast by the light of the moon onto the massive canvass of the ocean; whatever it is, I am at home around the beach or water.

Tonight, as I was walking along the path adjacent to the Delaware River in New Castle, I was remembering a phrase that my dear friend Cos had uttered to my friends and I nearly three years ago to the day. It was after a long night of heavy drinking down the Jersey shore, where we rented a house on the beach in Long Beach Island for a week--ten guys, recent college freshmen, on vacation together with no inhibitions and endless supply of beer and food.

It was one of the best weeks of my life.

One night during that week, we were all sitting on a bench on the beach, facing the ocean, feeling blissfully peaceful (and no doubt foolishly drunk), when Cos uttered his now-infamous proverb: In 5, 10 years, this is where I want to be. This is where we all should be. We want to be there--(pointing out to sea)--where the ocean meets the sky.

We all proceeded to vision ourselves in 5 or 10 years down the road, being in this same place of contentness and resolve, that we bought into Cos' madness and repeated his oration of being where the ocean meets the sky, until we all doubled over laughing at the absurdity of the statement.

Despite the absurdity, now three years later, I am still facing the water, striving to be where the ocean meets the sky, wanting to own that feeling of infinity, of limitlessness, of bliss with a hint of uncertainty, and hope that, whether in Corey Beach, New York; Long Beach Island, New Jersey; or here in New Castle, Delaware; I'm on my way.