Sand

The most significant part of our insignificant lives is sharing it with someone else. For my brother, on his wedding day.

 

Sand

By J. G. Nicholson



The sand is warm beneath their feet. The happy couple makes their way towards the waiting crowd, walking hand in hand down to the shore. She pats the swell beneath her flowing gown and he smiles, thinking of the future.

At the makeshift altar, they make their promises with all the invincible determination of youth. To have. To hold. To cherish, even unto death. The smiles light their faces and spread infectiously into their small collection of family and friends. They exchange vows, rings, a single kiss. The wind whips their hair behind them like golden flags heralding the importance of the day.

In the crowd, a young divorcee is pondering whether a beach wedding would have saved her failed attempt at marital bliss. A nearby groomsman ponders the size and firmness of her breasts. Behind her, a small boy slumps in his chair. He is thinking of diving into the emerald water that is, at present, just beyond his reach. Eyes closed, he can almost feel the stinging of the salt against his eyes and nostrils. The sand is warm beneath his feet as he begins to kick a fine dust of it onto the backs of his mother’s legs.

Down the beach, beyond the ceremony, a baby is crying. A stray dog sniffs hopefully at an abandoned bag of potato chips. A group of surfers buff their colorful boards in preparation for the next good wave. Gulls circle overhead while an elderly couple combs the beach for conch shells and sea glass. Out further still, the water is teeming with the secrets of aquatic life. The ocean world bustles with coming and going, eating and swimming, keeping track of the swelling tide. Somewhere, the water touches land again, and on those shores, perhaps, another couple stands, making the same vows in a distant tongue.

None of this matters to the new couple as they are turned out again into the world. They are a family now, and this day is only theirs. No one else could possibly share this significant day with them. No one could match the height of their excitement, the level of their devotion, the depth of their love. In their heart of hearts, they know that, on this day, in the moment that they promised to stand by each other on all other days so much less significant, the world must surely have been halted by the weight of their passion.

Still, on the beach, the living continues. The surfers head out bravely onto the water. The elderly couple stops to dip their toes into the foamy waves. The crying baby is sated when the dog, enticed by the smell of her snack bag, pays a visit. The wedding guests, at last dismissed, filter out onto the sand to mingle. The groomsman strikes out with the divorcee, and the young boy splashes head-first into the waves, his mother behind him shrieking that he should please remember not to go out too far. Across the water, beyond the effervescent life at sea, babies are born, deals are made, loved ones are lost, and not a single person knows of the special moment being shared by two grinning youngsters on a beach one thousand miles away.

As the years pass, the couple will grow to understand their small place in the eternal cosmic forces of life. A school teacher and an artist, they will earn a meager living, cry when their children grow old, and hold on fiercely when the struggles come. Never again will they experience the feelings they had on the beach that day, though the memories of the event are forever etched into the fabric of their lives. Still, they will always remain convinced that, on that day, even just for a moment, the world did pause to catch its breath as they stepped out onto the beach, and that, right then, nothing was more important than the sand that was warm beneath their feet.

.......Congratulations, Josh and Andrea. We may all be just grains of this sand that makes up life, but our little microcosm of the world did stop to watch you make your vows. Hold on to that feeling as long as you can, and remember to love each other just the same when it’s replaced by a new one. I wish you the best of love and happiness, always.

With Love,
Your Sister,
Jessica.

 

Reviews

[Ama May Cooper]

An amzingly sensative and truthel piece written from the heart. Your description wonderfully woven. Beautiful and a very worthwhile read

[WriterMe]

Beautiful =] This story was magnificent. Very warm and heartfelt. I guess you wrote out of experience so thats what makes it so fantastic. In any case, congratulations to your brother as well. May the memories of that day stay with him forever =]

[54321]

:)