I am a Hottie! -- to ten year old boys.....

I can draw them from miles away, these ten year old boys....

Just put on my new bathing suit...... yes...... I can now appear in public in a bathing suit (check out my physical fitness journey detailed in my Garden of Eden Vegan blog), grab my float and anchor, and find a quiet spot on the bay, and they come running.....or at least splashing, like moths to a bright light.

Here I am, just floating in the bay -- meditating on the gift of nature...knowing how precious and fragile these waters are as we anticipate the BP tragedy hitting our beaches soon. The birds are busy fishing, the waves soothing my body into relaxation. I scoop up some water to cool myself and....

I am splashed with lots of water and a young boy, Tyler, says, "Hey Lady! Can I splash you?" as he splashes me.

"No thanks, Tyler.... I'm just fine," I answer, wiping the water out of my eyes.

I then close my eyes and try to reconnect to that special place to sink into with my mind, body and spirit and then I feel my raft rocking,

"Hey Lady, want me to pull you around?"

"No Tyler, I am fine."

And then two other young boys join him and they start an underwater farting contest. With giggles and splashing.

Finally, lunch time and they get called into the park.

Just as I reconnect with my solitude and meditation, I hear another hoard of young boys galloping in my direction, with their father shouting, "Stay right there, I have to go to the bathroom." (The public toilet is just beyond where I am floating, beyond the beach and into the park.)

And I thought, "Drat -- why didn't you call them to shore. Can't you see they are now surrounding my raft? Why do they have to 'stay right there' when they are wrecking my peace and solitude?"

They boys decided that burping was more fun than farting and they would dive in the water, almost capsizing me, and then rise up with these loud toad-sounding burps, splashing me with their dives and filling the air with their boisterous laughing. Finally, Dad called them to shore for lunch too.

Before a third batch of proud burpers and farters arrived, I decided it was best if I pulled up anchor (a five pound weight that has already gotten more use as an anchor than it ever did as an exercise weight) and headed for shore.

Moral of the story?
probably none

maybe just the joy of being a kid when life is full of discovering your body and its functions.

maybe the realization that we all share this planet, a (s)aging woman looking for nature and solitude, farting ten year old boys, and BP, greedy polluters wrecking the beauty of what we share.

My personal vow, besides thinking of ways to help heal the planet one person at a time, is to get to this beach as often as I can; to savor it and enjoy it so that someday, if we have no beaches, I can tell my grandchildren about a time when we did.

As our sages say: we do not have to complete the project, but we cannot ignore it and stand idly by -- we must begin work on solving it; we must begin and continue work on tikkun olam: healing the world.

Join me.

Many blessings sent out to each of you.