Chapter 6 - The Open HorizonThat afternoon, Lily and I drove out to the coastal state park just twenty minutes outside the city.
The air was crisp and smelled of pine needles, damp earth, and ocean salt. The crowds of summer tourists were long gone, leaving the pristine white-sand beaches quiet, peaceful, and entirely our own.
Lily ran ahead of me down the wooden boardwalk, her pink jacket bright against the golden dunes, her laughter carried away on the autumn wind. In her small right hand, she clutched her stuffed rabbit; in her left, she carried an empty plastic bucket ready to be filled with seashells.
I walked a few paces behind, watching her with a heart so full it felt as though it might burst.
She stopped at the edge of the dunes, turning around and waiting for me to catch up, her bright brown eyes sparkling with excitement.
“Mommy, look!” she called out, pointing toward the vast, endless horizon where the deep blue ocean met the clear autumn sky. “The water goes on forever!”
I walked up beside her, gently taking her small, warm hand in mine.
“It does, baby girl,” I said, looking out at the endless expanse of sparkling blue water, feeling the warm sun on my face and the steady, unbreakable rhythm of the waves crashing against the shore. “It goes on as far as you can see.”
“Can we walk all the way down to the water?” she asked, looking up at me hopefully.
May you like
“We can go anywhere you want,” I smiled, squeezing her hand tightly. “The whole world is open.”
She grinned, and together, hand in hand, we walked down the sandy path toward the shore—leaving our footprints deep in the clean sand, completely free, completely safe, and finally home.
