Back in 2020 I painted a dark stormy shorepound painting as a response to the mayhem we were all living through. It struck a chord with many, I think because in spite of the darkness there was a certain beauty in it as well. A few years later, when a collector asked for a similar rendition, it didn’t turn out quite so dark. If I were asked for one now, I’m not sure what would happen.

We live in different times today. Even the beaches that inspired these paintings have changed. What was once a short berm to hop down from the dunes to the beach sand below has become a 15 foot vertical precipice of sand for what feels like miles in either direction. We entered at a low spot and walked south for a good stretch on the low tide.

My wife and I watched our two youngest make sport on a dare of scrambling up the vertical wall and throwing themselves off the ledge over and over. Weightless they flew, occasionally even flapping their arms in delightful giddiness as they fell like stones into the soft sand below, occasionally toppling awkwardly feet over head and again when gravity’s momentum got the better of their balance.

I pray their experience of this world that is becoming far more difficult for many among us, will still be something they can always find beauty in. And one thing I am certain of- their joy wasn’t just in the playful act of cliff diving into soft sand, it was in the act of doing so with each other. Laughing at each other. Pushing each other onward. Surprising each other with entirely new ways to look goofy when falling in midair.

I’ve never been more convinced that the greatest joy we can find in this life is just to be with the ones who are with us.