(Blog 3 as I continue with stories from our trip to St. Kitts.)

How can I visit an island and not talk about beaches?  Oh my … the beaches we saw, walked, and visited.  I had never really thought about beaches so seriously before seeing so many KINDS of beaches on St. Kitts.

Isak Dinesen:
The cure for anything is salt water — sweat, tears, or the sea.

St. Kitts is one of a line of small islands that form a dotted line between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.  The north/northeastern shores of St. Kitts have Atlantic beaches and the south/southwestern shores have Caribbean Sea beaches.  Why is this significant you may ask?  The Atlantic beaches have much larger waves.  The Caribbean beaches have the gentle lapping smaller waves and turquoise blue waters.  The other variation seen is the material that makes up the beach.  Because St. Kitts is an island with a huge volcano in the middle, there are a lot of volcanic rocks formed from thousand year old eruptions.  On the Atlantic beaches, the forces of the crashing waves have carved many interesting rock formations.  Another beach has sand that is black, from the pulverized black volcanic stone.  When walking on the sand with the black kind mixed in, all I can say is “Ouch, ouch, ouch, OUCH!” as I hurried for shade or the cool relief of ocean water to cool my burning feet!  Still, other beaches are comprised of small egg sized stones that are fairly gently on the beach until you get ankle deep and the rocks are covered with either sharp cutting coral or slippery seaweed growth.  You’re either going to cut your foot, or slip and fall (and hurt your hind side!). 

Thoreau
My life is like a stroll on the beach… as near to the edge as I can go.

Now Laurel got to thinking about how my observation of so many kinds of beaches can birth a story that relates to us humans.  🙂

I think all of us are like our own little beach.  Some of us are made of stone and are strong and confident.  Some of us are gentle souls with soft sands.  But we all have the potential to change as we are subjected to various forces in our lives.  If life has dealt us some tough blows, like the crashing Atlantic waves, we can either crumble or accept the changes given us.  I watched the mighty waves crashed fiercely on the huge black rocks of St. Kitts and thought how marvelous it was to see the salt water spray into the air, turning the water a churning, boiling white.  There was another beach of calm waters and coral covered stone that was a great place to snorkel.  Like having to deal with a prickly and difficult person, the great challenge of this beach was getting past the ouchy and slippery parts so that you could throw your body forward into the water and get off your feet.  Then there was the beautiful sand beach with calm waves where you just wanted to lie in the sun and soak up the rays.  This beach was like that calm, serene person who holds all their anger in.  If you try to walk on them, you better have your shoes on or you will get burned!

So we are, like a beach, and subjected to forces in our lives that can make us stronger, softer, or even change us.  At the Marriott resort that we stayed at, the beach was on the Atlantic side.  To make it more pleasant for guests, long lines of rocks had been built up diagonally to the coast so that these walls acted as ‘breakers.’  As waves crashed first against these rock walls, it lessened the force of the wave that then continued on to break on the beach.  Lesson learned – if we don’t like the forces that are influencing our ‘beach’ you can always do something to change things!

Just Laurel

Jeremiah 5:22 ²² Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord.
Will you not tremble at My presence, Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea,
By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it?  And though its waves toss to and fro,
Yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.