After one of my breaks, I was heading out to the waves, when I heard a tiny little voice cry out "follow me". I turned around to see a little girl playing in the surf. I though maybe she was just talking to the water, so I started to walk out into the waves. Suddenly, she ran up to me, quite insistent, and cried "I SAID, follow me!". She then ran off to a pile of sand she created, and kept making sure I was following her. When I got over to her, she told me the pile of sand was from her digging her own pool. She then told me that she would let anyone come to her pool, all they had to do was ask. It was so simple, so sweet, so accepting. She said "You can come into my pool if you want". So, of course, I sat in the wet sand, and chatted with her. She rattled on and on, about how she was at the beach with her mommy and daddy, and it was a "honeymoon", which I think was her word for vacation. She asked if I lived at the beach, and when I told her no, but I wished I could, her breathless reply was "wouldn't that be lovely?". She told me her name was Kate, and pointed her mom out to me. Her mom smiled and waved, which leads me to believe she is used to Kate making friends with strangers like this.
Kate began drawing in the sand and squealing when the surf would wash away her drawings. Then she noticed that when the surf receded, tons of tiny little clams could be seen. She then picked a handful of them and gave them to me, and told me to take them home with me. I thanked her, and told her I was going to put them in my beach bag.
I walked over to Hubby, told him I never made it to the water, and explained why. I finally did go into the waves, and during my next break, I watched Kate frolic with more of her new found friends. She approached people of all ages, races, body types, you name it. She was spreading joy with equal opportunity.
As I watched Kate walking along the beach with her dad, I could not help but think of all the people she must have made smile today.
