"Find Your Beach"

I must admit this is a very catchy slogan from the folks at Corona.  Most people thoroughly enjoy the beach and can recall a pleasurable moment.  So when the camera zooms in to that ice cold bottle of beer dressed with salt and lime, over looking a crystal blue sea and white sandy beach, and the announcers encourages you to "find your beach" what comes to mind?  Drinking?  Vacation?  A scene from a black and white film where a couple shares a passionate kiss as the waves crash against them?  That particular movie scene makes me cringe at the thought of sand in unmentionable places, water up my noise, and salty kisses.  Not that all salty kisses are a bad thing...a salty kiss with a hint of tequila and lime can be a good thing, if memory serves.

If "your beach" is metaphorically the place that brings you happiness, than my "beach" has changed over the years.  

When I was a kid, my beach was Disneyland or anywhere that was fairy tale and fantasy.  In my early teens, my beach was the band hall at Dwight Middle School and sometimes TJ's Burgers.  During my late teen years, I had several beaches.  One of my favorites was the dance hall in George West, TX listening to the Taylor Bros Band, another was the front porch of my aunt and uncle's house at the ranch and then there was the "bar room" of my parents' home on Glen Garden.  Any wonder why I am most at home on a bar stool, with a cold long neck bottle, or playing a game of pool and listening to an old jukebox howling with the songs of Merle, George and Conway??  

As I grew older, I thought my beach was marriage, parenthood and a little place in the country, somewhere safe and quiet, a good place to raise a family.  Later I learned that family is the group of people that love you just as much as you love them and they can be the family you choose, not necessarily the one you are born into or married into, the kind of people I call my soul family.  I also learned that a home is not always a dream home, it's a home that is shared with the ones you love and that home can be anywhere.  I tell my children that when we are together in a place that is comfortable and we are enjoying life, that is home.  

Of course, it's always nice to escape reality when the stresses of work, bills and adult life weigh you down and although a cantina is a great place to hang out, ultimately, shouldn't life itself be a "beach?" 

So that's my goal this year and by year I mean after summer vacation, once the school year has started and I'm "back to life, back to reality." When mother of two, teacher to 20, graduate student and then some come crashing down...I hope I find my beach.