The tide was coming in as I dodged the waves with my new running shoes. Not wanting to get my feet wet, I searched for compact sand as I ran as close to the receding water as I dared. I didn’t see the large wave coming before it completely drenched my shoes. Water oozed from the netting that covered my toes. Sand clumped under my socks. I continued for another 10 minutes along the Maryland shore -- jumping, dodging, and scurrying away from the waves until I tired from the effort. Running through the surf was sheer joy.
Yielding to the incoming tide is exactly what I have been practicing for the past 7 months with Dawn. After all the dreaming, being in a relationship with Dawn has been better than any fantasy I could imagine. It has been worth all the waiting and all the driving to be with her. I have been living, hanging on for the ride.
Since I last wrote I have spent much of my free time driving between Ithaca and Washington DC to be with Dawn and her daughter Mollie. Additionally, I ran the Boston marathon and began training for another, traveled to two conferences on different coasts, participated in formal graduation ceremonies to receive my doctorate, attended three friends’ weddings, visited 9 states, had two manuscripts accepted for publication, applied for 5 jobs, marked the one year anniversary of my dad’s death with my mom, sister, and brother, and spent time with three friends visiting from the UK and Uganda and many others in Boston, Washington DC, Baltimore, and Atlanta. Life is very rich. I’m working on yielding to the tide. When I do it is sheer joy.
Postscript: I wrote the above the day before Hurricane Katrina, but was not ready to post it until after the news broke. In the wake of the devastation to the Gulf Coast, the imagery of breaking waves and tide means something different than it did at the end of August when I went for the morning run I described above. Over the past few weeks I have grieved as if I lost a distant relative. My heart aches for the many people who were directly affected by the storm and its aftermath.
