Indian Summer? Summer? Whatever It Is, I'll Take It!

If nothing else, our ephemeral "Summer" has been one marked by abnormal contrasts. From ten weeks of overcast and chill not unlike being stuck in your refrigerator for a couple months, to days of record breaking heat. Maybe this is climate change, not a gradual decrease or increase in temperature, but a jarring descent (or ascent) into extremes. I wonder, in this time of extremes in religion, politics and culture if we just aren't succumbing to the influence of a not so parental Mother Nature.

So if I haven't accepted the bone chilling downside, I have fully bonded with the upside, never more prevalent than the conditions of the last few weeks and days. While surf has abandoned us from all points on the compass, conditions have not. I spent the last two days on the Angulo SUP, making paddle excursions cut from the heart of tranquility. Wednesday I did the down-reef tour, and yesterday I did an up-reef loop. Thursday's journey even included some unexpected wave riding.

Temps both days were in the high 70's and low 80's. Wind on Wednesday blew uncharacteristically out of the north/NE (offshore) all day. True to form the breezes shifted southerly yesterday, but were light and warm, unusual since this direction sends the wind in from over the 56 degree ocean. The fog was in the house offshore, and it blew in gently in the mid-afternoon. Out on the sea I literally watched the marine inversion layer reform in the local fog corridor.

Wednesday I had the good fortune and pleasure of finding Brian at the beach with his two kids, young ones and Dad enjoying the day in the sun by the sea. An after paddle body surf added a tingly finish to the session although no one could swim into the pristine spitting barrels that reeled off directly into two inches of skim. Yesterday I felt so relaxed when I touched land that I just hoisted myself up on the cement wall and soaked it all in...sun, land, sand, wind and the colors.

Making it even better is that this burst of beauty fell between the bookends of the beginning of the new school year, and the soon to come Labor Day weekend. We fortunate few enjoyed our blessings in relative solitude. It was truly a time for locals and those whose timing was just right.

Paul said, "All things work together for good, to those who love God." The first half of that sentence would be rationally absurd if not qualified by the second. The more I learn to love God the more I believe that God truly does love us. I would find it hard to believe that a loving God would hate a rationalistic atheist who loved Nature, and therefore loved the creator of Nature, God.

Would it be any less true just to say, "All things work together for good for those who love," and leave it at that?