This morning we drove to the Gold Coast. This area is about 1 hour south of our Brisbane home in South-East Queensland (Australia).
It is beautiful. Long, white beaches that are often flanked by trees and usually pretty clean, and while often busy on weekends, this Easter weekend had a very reasonable amount of (pretty happy) people.
Maybe it's the cooler weather, who knows, but there was plenty of space to walk, run, swim and do yoga.
Yoga. It turns out that there is a council-subsidised (low-cost) yoga class held weekly, outdoors, on the grass right by our favourite Gold Coast beach. I got chatting to the instructor soon after Brad started his long run and I was looking for an excuse to delay the start of mine.
He was a delightfully wise, gentle and thoughtful man who happily told me about the benefits of yoga for physical, mental and spiritual health. I found myself agreeing with him a lot and feeling blessed to have found a teacher who I feel like I could genuinely learn things that are truly important to me.
I made a note of the time, location and day he runs these classes and a promise that I would be back.
I walked away with peace in my heart and a renewed sense of well being.
I had wanted to be careful this morning that I did force my body to run; I've been doing a little too much and sleeping a bit less than usual and it's been catching up with me. I was aware my body didn't need exercise as much as it needed nuturturing movement.
I would have been happy to simply stroll in my activewear along the concrete path that hugs the coastline as I listened to the crashing waves, but even if my longer-than-usual layers I was a little cold. I started running slowly, really slowly.
I found myself thinking that this was "gentle running"; a way of running that feels like it fuels the body rather than depletes it. In my peaceful state, it was easy to settle into a pace that felt like a lovely moving meditation rather than feeling any kind of pressure to run fast or run any particular distance.
I was just moving and being. And it was delightful.
With no agenda, I could stop for photos of beautiful, interesting and surprising things. I didn't need to pause my watch, in fact, I probably didn't need my watch to record my moving meditation at all, I had simply turned it on out of habit.
As I noticed the time tick by I realised I needed to head back in order to meet Brad at our agreed time. A walk along the beach felt like a lovely idea, so I took off my minimalist running shoes and let my strong bare feet carry me along 1 1/2 km of sand.
I watched the waves rush in and the birds rush out, and the surfers cruise (as only surfers can) as I watched for my exit up to where the car was parked.
Brad was all smiles; he'd had a great, fast, flat run. We were both ready to dunk ourselves in the salty ocean before driving to our next destination.
The surf was big, so the surf-patrolled area was small. This meant that, sensibly, we were only allowed to swim in a really narrow area since the surf was pounding and dragging people in and out, left and right. On one of the most popular beaches on the Gold Coast, in one of the most popular beach areas of Australia there were only 20-30 people in this narrow section while we took it in turns to get in.
Neither of us lasted long; the waves were huge and strong. We both stopped at the point where the water reached our waist and bravely dove underneath a wave, or two, or ten before letting a big wave deliver force us onto the beach again. It was great to get a head full of saltwater and to remember just how powerful the ocean truly is.
We headed for the cold ocean showers, as is our habit, and I soon realised that the last couple of big waves I'd swum under and through had picked up so much sand that my hair was now full of it. As I washed my happy body in cold freshwater I tried and failed to get the sand off that had been powerfully blasted onto my skin and scalp. I smiled at Brad and shrugged, I guess I was taking the beach home with me.
All photos are my own (taken on my phone) except for the one of me on the beach (Brad, my partner, took this on his phone and willingly shared it with me to use here).
I missed Galen's awesome weekend engagement post (I'll have to look next time before beginning my story-telling!). But it's not too late for you to jump in and participate as there's still more than 24 hours left at the time I'm posting this and he's put some fabulous prompts in there!
Thanks for reading. I hope you are feeling as happy and peaceful as I am.
