Mrs. Teabody Catches a Wave

Come sail away?

( Written January 15 on Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo)

Ordinarily, Mrs. Teabody restricts the writing of her little missives to time at home -- greeting the day whilst looking at her beloved Tuscarora Mountain. After all, on holiday one likes to keep one's brain set on "barely functioning" when a body of blue water is nearby. HOWEVER, the brand new but thoroughly-soaked vacation ensemble that lies drying in the Caribbean breeze has sent Mrs. Teabody to the keyboard to share her thoughts about the nature of the sea and the nature of life with you, Gentle Reader.

As Mrs. Teabody writes, the always beautiful and ever-changing sea fills her view. Less conspicuous are the forms of sea life that she knows are gurgling, piping, and leeching along less than one hundred feet away as Mrs. Teabody taps upon the black square keys. The Teabodys are dwelling in a smallish but stunning and impeccably-maintained house perched directly on the seafront in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Every window is filled with blue. Transcendent.

Gathering sea glass was one of the holiday’s missions. Mrs. Teabody has many beach-loving Tickle Your Fancy friends who like a bit of the sea’s treasures hanging from a silver wire at their throats or ear lobes. Rough shards of broken glass transformed into beautiful geometrics, to silky perfection are evidence of both the sea’s power and of its unpredictable nature. Mr. Teabody had responded in gentlemanly fashion just the day before when Mrs. Teabody sent him out-of-doors to “find some cool stuff” and he returned an hour later with his usual collection of oddities as well as some lovely small bits of brown and green glass. “Is this all?" asked Mrs.Teabody, somewhat unkindly. "I shall go MYSELF tomorrow,” she boasted to which Mr. Teabody snorted and then replied, “ Well, Darling, you DO that but you'd best remember, you get ONE shot. If you can’t grab the piece you want before the next wave comes in, it’s lost.” Mr. Teabody often taunts Mrs. Teabody thus and Mrs. Teabody likes a challenge. . .

Of course, Mrs. Teabody had a great deal of trepidation going out and dealing with such a vast ocean. But looking smart in a nice new white outfit, she ventured away from the safety of the house. The first barrier to glass gathering was a long mound of seaweed. A foot placed gingerly upon that muck sent God-only-knows what sorts of insect life into a frenzy of activity. However, nothing ventured and all that sort of rubbish . . .The strand was reached and the vast ocean lay at Mrs. Teabody's feet.

Try standing with your feet in the sand and sorting waves on a vast body of water and good luck to you, Gentle Reader. Sometimes you are able to pick one out and follow it towards the shoreline with your eyes before it breaks or deflates, but such attempts to do so on a great expanse soon prove frustrating not to mention fruitless. Not giving up, Mrs. Teabody chose a wave among the breakers closer to the shoreline and enjoyed a modicum of luck initially but soon enough came to realize how pointless it is to try to categorize waves. One wave looks very much like another and yet each is unique. Mrs. Teabody had just gotten comfortable with a gentle, shallow area where the waves flattened and spread delicately around her toes and ankles. Gleefully, she chose this safe spot for wading and beach glass grabbing. Soon she had three lovely pieces of glass and was feeling the confidence of Wonder Woman. In her smugness, she was totally unprepared when she was suddenly knocked off her pins by an errant wave several thousand times the height she was expecting and full of force. Mrs. Teabody's dignity was left sitting on its posterior and rapidly filling up with seaweed and sand. That fed an "Aha!" moment as Mrs. Teabody realized that the ocean is full of lessons.

Each wave is like a new day coming in. On the surface they look the same. The ebb and flow is constant yet there’s no telling what one particular day - - or one particular wave -- will throw at your feet. Mrs. Teabody sat rather indelicately—perhaps even comically -- on her backside. Placed in a position of such compromise in her lovely ruined outfit with the waves surrounding her, she thought the simple act of rising to her feet was too much to accomplish. But then she looked more closely at all the treasures she had to choose from, all that the beauty that was passing her by as she perched helplessly upon her . . . inertia. She saw bits of sea glass swim by amongst a galaxy of coral and conch. Every single wave was rife with opportunity but only if she placed herself in a position to grasp it. Mrs. Teabody gave herself another moment to see what the waves would bring to her: a broken toothbrush, a handful of empty mussel shells, a length of broken headband. What to do? What to do? Toothbrushes would not make nice earrings. The mussel shells smelled to the Antipodes. The broken headband had lost its snap.

"Lovely day," offered a voice and Mrs. Teabody looked up out of her misery to see another human confidently strolling the strand, conch in one hand and a bag of glistening glass in the other. Was Mrs. Teabody one to just sit there and allow the days to wash over her whilst others were having a grand old time? Mrs. Teabody is NOT that person. Neither are you, Gentle Reader. So push yourself to your feet and resolve to place yourself in the right spot to grab what you can of life’s beauty because as Mr. Teabody will be quick to tell you, “You only get one shot.”