Holiday hike

I felt a little guilty this morning. Despite the encouragement for us all to do something of service to others today in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., my family heard the ocean calling and decided to seek out sun and surf. I'd like to think our whole lives ought to be about service, and I doubt Dr. King's desire was for us just to pick one day to do something nice. Perhaps I'm just trying to rationalize my choice for the day.

At any rate, we took a hike. It was really our first family jaunt using four pairs of legs since C's birth and it felt amazing. Pt. Loma has a reserve on the very tip of the rocky coastline with a lighthouse and some trails that wind down to the shore. We started up high, amid scrubby cacti and bristly grasses, then descended sea-worn cliffs to find tide pools and swirling, foamy surf. We watched surfers stand atop walls of green ocean while we fingered delicate hermit crabs and sea anemones.

On the walk back up to the top, L dreamed aloud about putting wheels on our house so we could bring it to the shore. We'd go down to the tide pools every morning after breakfast and explore the caverns on the hillside every afternoon. C was proud to accomplish every step of the steep staircase back to the top all on his own two legs.

Back on the trail, N said he had dreamed about taking us on this very hike while he was here months ago hunting for houses before our move.

We all have the same big dreams for our children -- education, opportunity, success, a long and healthy life -- and while we trust our own hard work and unconditional love to do the work of helping them achieve these goals, we sometimes are able to make smaller but equally significant dreams come true every day. Today, for us, it was a walk in the park.