Florida is taking a beating right now. The numbers of positive cases and deaths continue to rise; the governor insists schools must reopen five days a week in-person, despite the letter from the Florida chapter of the American Pediatric Association asking him to reconsider; and Marco Rubio can’t tell the difference between Elijah Cummings and John Lewis. But…
I have been able to shrink the big, dark cloud that’s been hanging over my head since mid-March by blasting it with a healthy dose of sun, sand and sea. The first full day here, we rode bikes to a secluded beach, played in the surf, and gathered shells. The next day, we let the kids sleep in and took off on our bikes again, finding another secluded spot where we could enjoy the beach and swim out to a sandbar. We’ve paddled at dusk through mangroves, kayaked through an inlet out to the Gulf, and watched the sun go down over an alligator-filled lake.
We’ve missed going to our favorite hang-outs, like the beach-side shack for fried calamari and beer and the Ringing Museum on Sarasota Bay, but the morning paddle I did on the Gulf today with a family of dolphins frolicking in the gentle waves definitely beat all of that, hands down.
I’ve been a little uneasy having our family so far from home at such a time, and I’ll breathe a sigh of relief when we pull into our driveway late Friday night, but until then, I plan to keep soaking in the sun and surf that sunny Florida offers in abundance.
My Corner of the Village 