Cottage By the Sea

You know what I daydream about? I think about living in a cottage by the sea.

I think about being with someone who feels like home. In the mornings the sun comes through the window in fractions that light up parts of the white walls. The breeze wrestles the curtains open. Everything is fresh and everyday is new. And there is no rush to move or to be anywhere at all. The air is filled with time and trust and love. And the love doesn’t need to be spoken or reassured. Life is in the silence. Gulls sing in the distance. The wooden floor sighs in response to our movement as if to say it’s glad to be touched. Some of the cupboard handles are loose. None of the mugs are the same. But everything has character. The faucet drips. House plants line the window panes. We eat breakfast and watch the waves roll on and on. You hold me from the back like a blanket draped over my shoulders. There’s only warm and safety and shelter. There are no responsibilities, just eternal peace. And we walk together and find shells which are the secrets of the sea. Our footprints in the sand fade with the tide as if to say everything we have is so ethereal and fleeting. Moments pressed in time only exist in memory because there is no proof that we are here or that any of it is real. And at night we read by the fireplace and talk about philosophy, Aristotle, Dante, and time. We talk about meanings and maybe everything is a muddle and perhaps we’ll never get the answers. But the only thing that really matters is that we know each other. And there’s such peace at night. I never dread the darkness because it doesn’t exist anymore. The twinkling lights and fireside fill the spaces that darkness used to leave. I am no longer haunted by the words I said or didn’t say. Our ghosts fade away. Love replaces the absence, love fulfills the loneliness. Love removes the bad memories. Pasts are erased here. The waves roll on and on and wash them away. And I realized I am healed—not by success and praise but by mismatched socks and tea in coffee mugs. I am healed by coming home to a cottage by the sea.