Reading and Writing

We have insisted on calling this time at Atlantic Beach a Sabbatical - see post of January 3, the day we left Highlands.  It is not a vacation, nor an escape.  It is a time for renewal and rejuvenation, for a break from the ordinary, and so we often find ourselves in the realm of the extraordinary - touching the heart of a whale, finding a royal sea star, listening to the story of a ghost ship.  We spend our evenings reading, mostly, comfortably ensconced with book or magazine.  The hours somehow seem longer here - like the vastness of the ocean stretching to the horizon, the immensity of the sky, the glory of the sun rising and setting - and so it seems easy and natural to fill this time with books.

I have also found time to write here, not just this blog, but the poetry that has been my passion most of my life, even when there was little time amidst the demands of family, career, and church.  Some of my recent poems have had their inception here, although sometimes I flesh them out later in Highlands.  I have had many of my poems published in the North Carolina Literary Review in recent years, and last week I received a Facebook notification that my latest poem has just been published in the NCLR on-line edition.

Martha urged me to share this announcement, and after some hesitancy, I agreed.  I was surprised and heartened by the "likes" and comments of encouragement I have received, many of them from friends who know me as that Town Administrator, or the runner they see all over Highlands, but might not have known that I also write obscure little poems.

So that is another joy of being here.  The history of this part of the world - its beauty every day, and the endless interest of the living beach, the every-changing clouds, the ocean always in a different mood every day - can be very inspiring!