A sacred feeling.

One can't help but fall in love with the sea in Sardinia. And with a beach. They are all similar in some ways. Yet different. Each with its own personality. And I've taken fancy especially to San Niccolo beach. Just outside the village of Buggeru. My first visit there two weeks ago was cut short. Because we arrived late. Shortly before sunset. I saw sun rays shooting down from patchy clouds. Like the gods in heaven were talking to me. Sending me a sacred signal. That I had arrived in Paradise. And I hated to leave. I wanted to stay at least overnight. If not forever. But my true love and I went home. Dutifully. But not without a pledge to return. Soon. And last week we did. This time, arriving early. So that we had plenty of time to walk the entire length of the sandy beach. Maybe two miles. One way. Came across a fisherman. With four sturdy rods planted at the sea’s edge. Don’t know if he caught anything. Because he was gone on our return trek. A couple seated on a blanket. Far back near the sand dunes. Had a little terrier dog. He came out and greeted us. Meanwhile, my true love fetched stones and sea shells. Made me store part of the load in my pockets. And I took some arty photographs. With my digital camera. It was dark when we left the beach. Climbed into our little Fiat. After shaking the sand from my shoes. I thought of it as sacred sand. From a sacred beach. But there was something more important to take home with me. A sacred feeling. --Jim Broede