What can I say about beaches, beaches have been with our lives from kid to old age. Beaches are not only to enjoy but also help us cure stress, depression and problems.
Try closing your eyes now, think of the last beach you ever visited. Imagine yourself there. You can hear the cool breeze, sound of waves, the fresh aroma of the sea shore, the water and sand entering your legs. Try imagining that and really you will feel like the beach is drawing towards you.
My earliest memory is of a beach. I’m about 2–3 years and the sun’s going down over the sea I could memorize the love for the ocean
I’ve spent the day playing rounders on the sand flats , chasing wave and collecting shells in a plastic bucket. The sky has that peculiar sky in the night makes the beach so beautiful and I’m walking home through the sand and crushed seashells, my towel around my neck. I can taste salt. Wherever you grew up in the world, our memories of beach holidays are probably similar.
I recently went to Galle for a break and took most of my time in the beach of unawatuna. I enjoy the melodious sounds of the sea. I went surfing and also scuba dived. I could see marine life, I truly like tears of joy and when I sailed ashore I felt like all my depression and problems are been taken away from me.
So what brings to us the joy of been in beaches ?
Before that, the ocean was something to fish in, drown in or (hopefully) cross. The idea of relaxing there wasn’t really a thing. It began, as most trends do, with the rich and powerful. In fact it was England, sitting all the way at the top of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, that popularised the beach holiday. Seaside resorts like Brighton and Eastbourne began opening up to the aristocracy in the early 18th century. Within a hundred years, railroads allowed more and more people of the middle classes to access the coast cheaply. Bucket and spade futures soared. The beach break was born.
Today, idyllic beaches are the salty engine that drives global tourism. But why? What draws us to the ocean? Why is it the benchmark for rest and relaxation?
The ocean is just so cool. Attraction to the beach, so the slightly cynical theory goes, is just one more little step on our continuous quest to be the most enviable version of ourselves we can be.
But personally, I’m not buying it. No-one needs to see you enjoying the beach for that enjoyment to become real. I just find the sea an excellent form of visual meditation. It’s one of the few things that gets more interesting the longer you stare at it. Waves jostle and hiss on the sand. Unidentified birdcalls give the whole thing a nice nautical feel. You can shower afterwards. It’s nice.
My best memory was when I was sitting on a beach once in Goa with a 2 best friends, watching the longtail boats hum across the bay. The sun was warm, the water perfect green and a little old lady was selling pad thai right on the sand. Truly magical.