Mary and went walking on the beach last weekend. We saw the sunset. We talked about everyday things. Meaningful things. Silly things. It didn’t matter. We were in good company.
Staring at Lake Michigan, with sand in between my toes and sneakers stuffed with smelly socks in my hand, I thought about how I take Lake Michigan for granted. It’s something that has always been around me since the day I was born. As a kid, my family took frequent camping trips to Warren Dunes. We’d spend days on the beach and in the water, coming back to camp with wicked sunburns that made it hard to sleep at night. Even now I still find myself at the beach at least a couple times during the summer. It’s not far from where I live; twenty minutes at best.
I think about this because I realize only a certain number of people have ever seen one of the Great Lakes in person. Even fewer have seen Lake Michigan, the only Great Lake to rest solely in the United States of America. Maybe fewer have climbed a nearby dune or swam in the lake itself, taking the risk of an E. coli infection to have some fun in the waves. I’ll admit, it’s a really fun risk!
How many things in life do we take for granted, like Lake Michigan? I have one for me: my writing. Writing has always been a constant in my life, something always around that I really don’t think is special anymore, especially during these last few weeks. It’s just… another trivial thing, another ho-hum pastime, something I often don’t feel lucky to have a talent for. There are lots of writers in the world. Thousands. Millions. So many so much better. There’s that deadly self-comparison again.
I began to read a friend’s fiction project in awe, thinking how great it would be if I had a story to tell again. I feel like I’m grasping for straws, scraping the very bottom of my creativity well. I need inspiration. An idea. I don’t expect it to flit out of nothing, but to be blindsided once in awhile by something out of this world really would be nice. I wouldn’t mind the concussion. Really.
Lake Michigan, I promise never to take you for granted again.
