Ebb and flow

 As is my custom on a Sunday evening, I walked along a favorite stretch of beach in Carlsbad, California, breathing in the sea air, listening to the sound of the Ancient Mother and marveling at the sunset.

 I noticed lovers kissing, families gathering up their colorful towels,  huge umbrellas and traditional beach toys after a day in the sun and surf, athletes running, elders strolling and women chatting. People walked a variety of dogs -- here a stately white standard poodle, there a chestnut teacup chihuahua, then a regal golden retriever, a frisky Yorkie, a pair of adorable Maltese, a yapping terrier and an abundance of lovable mutts.
  I smiled to myself as I recalled a wonderfully giddy phone call earlier in the day from one of my dearest friends, who told me he finally had proposed to his lovely (and patient) girlfriend of several years. I celebrated their joy long distance as they described the event, which took place along the Makapu'u Lighthouse trail on Oahu, a hike we had all made together a few months ago.
 I watched as the nearly full moon climbed in the sky at the same time as the sun began its descent, becoming a molten glow on the horizon as it passed through clouds. It reminded me of the time I stood at Kilauea Crater on the Big Island a few years ago. Sweet moonrise and dazzling sunset, combined with the powerful flow of lava, enraptured me. My soul thrilled to God's displays in nature.
 Thus, on this evening, I savored what felt like perfect summer with signs of life and love surrounding me everywhere. And it was. At that moment and in that place, it was.
 Nonetheless, a dark stain of grief crept into the scene as I remembered the mourning of my friends the same afternoon as they lay to rest their youngest child. My mind replayed the father's words as he choked on his tears: "It doesn't get any worse than this. It isn't right. A father isn't supposed to bury his son." My arms still felt the mother's embrace as she clung to her friends, knowing that we, as mothers, too, had some small sense of her devastating heartache. I listened as she questioned God and herself.
 I thought about a former student who, while planning her wedding, waits anxiously for her fiance to come home from a war zone in Afghanistan. While children here romp in the sunlight, children there cringe at the sounds of gunfire. While men and women here roast marshmallows over a fire pit at dusk, men and women there forage for scraps of food.
 I was reminded again that the ebb and flow of the ocean is the ebb and flow of life. I was reminded of the limitations of our experience and our vision. I was reminded at how little we can control. I was reminded of a sense of the divine mystery in all of life. I was reminded to express gratitude for being part of it.