before summer slips out the back door

We went to the beach in August, over my 18th birthday. We visited the same house we have been visiting since I was two feet shorter and celebrating a toothless eighth. I haven't changed (or grown) all that much. And neither has "Glory Be."

I love the ocean. I used to be afraid of it, and still am, a little. But the same waves that used to frighten me with their pounding and roaring and foaming wrath now caress my toes and send a shiver of delicious cold--not paralyzing fear--up my spine. Did my fears grow up along with me? Or do I simply see the ocean as something under God's power? Because His power is mighty. And I love the ocean because it whispers His name in the froth that laps at my feet, and the billows that crest the rocks.

And now, summer is slipping out the back door. I have taken a long, long break from my little web home, and it has felt strangely wonderful and sad all at the same time. I have cut back on computer time to focus on other things--school, now ended, and photography, and simply living. But I love this feeling--I had forgotten how much--the typing of my simple little words, the compilation of my simple little photos, and the moments they all bring back to me.

 I promise not to be gone so long again. But the future is closing in upon me with breathtaking speed, and Autumn is approaching--crisp, cozy Autumn. My heart is full.