The Sparkling Sea

“It’s so sparkly,” my daughter exclaims while pointing at the ocean through the open blinds of her room. I nod while peering out the window. She is right – the reflection of the morning sun creates a sparkle effect on the top layer of the water. It is stunning and contrasts against the deep blue of the August sky.

I give myself an extra moment to take it in the shimmering water. It is magical – no wonder my 2-year-old daughter pointed it out.

We are nearing the end of our vacation at my parents’ beach house in New Jersey. I can feel the fall approaching in the cooler air. The sun sets earlier and I sense that the days shrinking on me. The long shadows in the evening remind me of this. When I look at the calendar I see September looming.

Labor Day breaks my heart every year. The weeks leading up to it are bittersweet for me as I try to enjoy the end of summer. This year, I am feeling the transition more acutely because my daughter is starting nursery school in September. I had mixed feelings about school before the summer; now after three months of warm weather fun, I feel even more conflicted over it.

Her upcoming enrollment at school comes on the heels many weeks of pure joy: beach days, blackberry picking and long afternoons outside under the sprinkler. We lazed around the mornings and I let her stay up later at night. I scrubbed off the sand and dirt and sunscreen every evening in the bath. Naptime happened whenever we could squeeze it in between the sprinkler park and local pool.

September means routines and schedules. It means getting out the door by a certain time and ensuring that my daughter’s backpack has whatever she needs. She will have to wear real clothes and sneakers to school while her crocs and bathing suits sit unused in her closet. I know that it is time to invite structure back into our lives after three months without it, but its difficult to say goodbye to our glorious summer.

Change is inevitable, so as Labor Day approaches, I am trying to simply stay present in theses last few warm days between buying my daughter her backpack and planning what I will do during the hours she is at school. As I navigate through my own mixed emotions, I think about how beauty is often found during times of transition. After all, the ocean only sparkles and shimmers like this at the end of August – when the sun is a certain height in the morning sky due to the shorter days.

As my daughter and I look out at the sparking sea, I think about how everything will change, and try my best to find beauty during this transition in our lives.