Near Perfection

I'm writing this while sitting on the balcony of my beach front room looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. Over the past two days South Florida has experienced near record high temperatures. Meanwhile, my weather widget pops up alerting me to a "Severe Weather Warning" for the Columbus, Ohio area. There's a roughly sixty degree temperature difference between my home and my current, utopian location. The sun is setting behind me as I sit and watch the fading light reflected on the palm tree directly in front of me.

There are wisps of clouds paralleling the horizon. A nearly full moon shines brightly above me even as the sky darkens around it. Just to the right of the moon is a small, steady light in the sky. Star or planet, I don't know. The beach is slowly clearing as the sun worshipers head in, from my view seemingly following the sun to the west.

So often a long anticipated vacation fails to live up to expectations. This weekend that is not the case. After arriving five and a half hours late, everything began falling into place. The weather has been perfect and I even welcome the coming cold front and associated rain. From this vantage that too will be breathtaking. I'm only slightly sunburned, the perfect amount of sun. I made this trip with the woman I love and that has made every part of the experience better.

I am putting faces with screen names of the online widow and widower friends we came to see. I can't describe the connection I feel having this common grief that we share. For some it's carried deep within for others it's right there beneath the surface. For all of us it is there. These are good people.

For me it is deep within. It isn't buried; it's merely found its place in my heart. I find myself contented with the time we had together, able to cherish the good times we shared and recognize that the bad times helped shape me into the person that sits here, utterly content.

Now the ocean is disappearing into the darkness in front of me. I can make out the shoreline, the white caps and the distant horizon. I need to get ready for dinner, but I just wanted to steal a moment to capture the beauty of the moment and the feeling of contentment it brought me.