Saturday, my day started with a text from my good friend Reagan Hansbury wondering what I was up to for the day. He has been into the concept of earthing, and has been certain that it will help me. I have not sat on the earth since my stroke in June 2018. Anyway, he wants to get me to the beach on THAT day to sit in the sand!
I turn into a whiny little bitch. I have all kinds of reasons why this can't happen, but he is having none of it. Eventually he comes over and picks me up, and we head north. Near Westport there is a nice beach where Chadburn Gulch meets the ocean (Blues Beach). We park there. There is a steep (for me!) path down to the sand.
Reagan has packed my wheelchair and wants to use it to wheel me down, but I am certain and insistent that I want to get to the sand by my own power; my stubborn will has kicked in!
Eventually I make it to a nice little spot, and Reagan gets a sheet from his van for me to sit on and puts the chair next to me. With my functional right arm holding the wheelchair stable, I lower myself to my knees, then carefully let myself roll into a prone position. For the 1st time in 29 months I am lying on the earth!
Reagan goes back to the van and pulls out a little pillow. I lay there for a long time, digging my toes into the sand. At one point Reagan tells me I need some ocean connection, so he fills a water bottle with ocean water and pours it on my feet!!
Eventually, the sun slides to the west and it starts getting cool. I need to move, but of course my fear is realized, and even using my strong arm on my chair i can not get up. Reagan insists he can lift me. I do not quite believe him and am concerned he might blow his back out trying. But he insists I get into a sitting position and he comes behind me and wraps me into a bear hug, literally, as if I were a child (I weigh 190) and lifts me into the air and gently sets me down.
I am astounded! I am certain no one has lifted me like that since I was a child! Eventually, we make it back up that little trail to his van. Now he is determined to wait for a great sunset, so we drive a bit north to where Highway One turns inland just a bit because of those mountains. We are parked just above the ocean. Pelicans are hunting so close to us we can hear their bodies splash as they knife into the water. We pull out some weed and have a good smoke, and we tell stories of our childhood and weep some tears over times that were hard. We sing each other songs that we had written. We laugh so hard i am sometimes praying for my next breath.
The sun sinks into the ocean and color explodes across the sky. We are silent now. There are no more stories to tell, laughs to share, songs to sing, tears to shed. I am standing there thinking to myself that I must be the luckiest man on earth to have such a friend as this! And yes, I do think that I am the luckiest man on earth.
Be First to Comment