07-01-2016, Friday

On Friday July 1, 2016, my daughter and I went to Half Moon Bay Beach State Park for sightseeing. Because it was a weekday, both the winding mountain road and the parking lots in the park were empty. It was a cloudy day on the Half Moon Bay beach, but there were lots of ocean waves and flocks of seabirds. I felt it was filled with life.

On the soft sandy beach, I took off my shoes and carried them in one hand. I walked barefoot on the soft sandy beach slowly step by step and bowed my head looking at the sand. I listened to the undulating waves that were washing my heart, breathed the salty sea breeze that was clearing my lungs, and collected my favorite beachside objects, like tree branches and roots that had been soaked in seawater for long time, burnt wood coal left by campfire, and beautiful seabird feathers. When I returned to the parking lot with a hand full of stuff, my daughter joked, “Don’t take your treasures home, we already have too many at home.” I said, “Well, let me keep a picture of them.”

Sitting in the open picnic area beside the parking lot of the beach park, I put a pile of lifeless wood blocks full of the vicissitudes of the years on the picnic table that was filled with bird droppings, and put my old leather sandals, which had began to walk with me since 2004, next to them.

Looking at this strange pattern combination, I thought of feet and dreams.
(1)
Foot is a boat
Under storm, unyielding and tough
Reliable, forceful

Dream is the sail
Ride on the wind, very brave
Keeping original intention alive

(2)
Barefoot
Walking along the beach
Collecting lifeless
Tree roots, rotten wood, dead branches and
Feathers that once flew in the sky

Dream
Scanning the long journey of life
Awaking life
Feelings, wishes, thoughts and
The footprints that once touched countless places

Never forget the original intention
Countless places cross over from the beginning and
My dreams
flying freely above the sea into the sky