Though the success of one ambition has led to the default of another, I have the happy circumstance of not caring less. Really to imagine that anything I do at this stage carries weight is pushing it. Speaking for myself however I rejoice today in having made it to the beach. The unrelated failure to which I allude is even less gripping, a technical computer issue of no consequence.

I wager that since last year – after an absence of several years – when we first spoke with our estate agent on Hilton Head Island to arrange a vacation it has been a dream of mine to bicycle on the beach as I had done so often in the past. Though it is not an uncommon objective, I correctly observed that my declining motor capacity might work against me. For one thing I got a new knee last May. And since 2018 when I collapsed on the beach in Florida, my broken ribs have endured progressive arthritis. The good news is that I can still cycle.  The bad news is that without the added benefit and balance of my tricycle, bicycling is somewhat risky.

Since our arrival on Hilton Head Island at the end of January I have judiciously confined my bicycling to nearby Lands End. I am still adjusting to a bicycle after having ridden only a tricycle at home for the past eight months. Though I have seen several tricycles here on the island, they have all the appearance of private ownership, not rentals, which is why I rented a bicycle only. Even though my tricycle at home is collapsible (to a degree) it would never have fit in the car for transport.  Besides cycling one’s personal cycle on the beach is an invitation for disaster as the fine sand destroys the gears. The rentals provide sacrificial accommodation.

Two days ago I cycled in the neighbourhood as usual.  Last evening my legs were feeling distressed. So early this morning I used my Theragun to massage my thighs and limbs. Apparently it worked. When I headed out this morning to Lands End I felt much improved, so much so that I was enthused to wander afield. I headed towards the nearest beach access; that is, the nearest point from which one may reliably cycle on the beach.  Being as we are at the lowest point of the island, the beach here often remains more saturated with water than elsewhere.  In certain areas the beach is thus impassable except on foot.

Anyway I directed myself to the nearest beach entry point with which I was well acquainted.  To my amazement I made it up the wooden walkway to the crest overlooking the beach.  As there was no one about, instead of walking my bicycle along the wooden walkway to the beach, I cycled to its end.  Thence it was a matter only of getting myself positioned on the bicycle seat and moving.  The wide open space of the beach was a welcome relief from narrow sidewalks, walkways and roadways. I headed directly north into the northeasterly wind and triumphantly kept moving, employing my limbs with uncommon agility. It was a moment of complete recovery and reckoning. The recovery was its renewed and unaltered familiarity; its reckoning was its positive relief for doing so. Not only had I accomplished a wish; I had succeeded to dispel its mystery.  As much as one idolizes the sea and the beach in poetry and paintings, the inalterable truth is that the image is largely repetitious. I say this with reservation because I am a nautical worshipper; and, only as lately as several days ago I purchased a painting which captures an oceanside scene. Nonetheless I have the favour of having overcome months of pondering and discombobulating hopefulness. I won’t pretend that the appraisal was not without an element of “Is that all there is?” but I will acknowledge it most certainly eased me to achieve the milestone.

The satisfaction is double-barrelled in that it commensurately reinforces the new limits which abound in my life. No longer must I devote myself solely to the intellectual debate regarding the propitious quality of such reasoning. Instead I am now moved by ingredients in the more compelling factual domaine. And to be direct I suspect that the beach photographs I have taken have already achieved their limit of novelty. Notwithstanding that dissolving admission, herewith a collection of the snaps I took. This by the way was the source of the technical issue on my computer.  It too was resolved after prolonged application though I haven’t a clue how.