down by the seashore - mostly just words

i have been trying for days to figure out how to accurately depict our beach trip this year. i don't know how. i could easily post pictures and write all about them and what's happening in each one. as i could with everything that is happening in life right now. 

but that's just not enough. 

i have a phone full of our every day, here and there and everywhere moments. they stir up in me something that makes me realize how much bigger of a picture we are in and how all of these moments are making up that picture. simple snaps that do bring me to tears. they do drum up feelings and are images of the bigger things that God is doing all around us. 

the beach is just that. part of something larger. something exceptionally big.

i love to take photographs and the beach is prime for capturing images. images truly do speak a thousand words. they somehow help to bottle up everything in that moment, whether good or bad. and they encourage me to remember. 

there is so much that i didn't capture in an image on this trip. and that's perfectly okay. because that means i was more in the moment than ever. right where i was supposed to be.

those moments of sitting still on the porch, looking at the ocean, and praising God. simply praising Him. i can't capture that in an image. but all around His glory shone. it shone so bright i could barely take it in. 

His glory.

 in family all around. in rambunctious children. in working together to build a sandcastle. in the waves that speak His greatness and all consuming power. in the perfectly placed clouds and the sun that glimmered through. in the morning moments with will and tuck on a deserted beach looking for shells. in watching them wonder. in seeing my oldest conquer fears and riding waves like it was no big deal. in conversation after conversation, encouragement to all of our souls. in walks with words exchanged and new realities. in the tide that turns because He tells it to. in an early morning run all alone. in clarity and in progress. in watching will chase the sea gulls with abandon. in cousins excitement to all be together. in tucker's joy while collecting any and every living animal he could find on the beach. in feeling the sand and watching the sky take shape. in reprimands and hard lessons. in watching the seagrass wave in the wind. in slowing down and just being able to be somewhere out of the ordinary. 

but there were still many photographs taken to simply try to bottle up all of this. i tried. i couldn't do it. i couldn't capture in an image all that happened and just was.

the images will come. probably all on their own.