The Holden Beach Miracle

     I might look like just any old well worn cap, truth is, I am pretty worn out but let me tell you about my 14 hours at sea.

     About 7 pm I was resting on my JP’s head while she was enjoying the pounding surf at Holden Beach. The tide was going out and the riptides were strong. Out of nowhere a rogue wave washed over her and I found myself tumbling into the foamy white sea.  I was soaked with salt, sweat and sand and I could hear my best friend in the whole world calling for me but I was too saturated and cold to be able to pop up and show myself.  I tried to float but to no avail.  I tried to pop up again but the surf was too strong.  It seemed like forever when I finally realized that I just needed to go with the flow, relax and not fight the powerful currents that were taking me away from the person who I knew as “home”. I was very sad, and said my goodbyes and thank yous.  I rolled over into my visor and drifted out on the withdrawing tide.  The brightness above the waves slowly began to turn to darkness as the horizon faded.  I continued to be pulled like a magnet to metal, stuck in the wash of currents.  This seemed to go on longer than anything I could ever remember. Back and forth, up and down,  pushed into the seaweed, thrown into a jellyfish and then up to the surface where the waves rolled and broke about me. On one of those quick forward motions I saw what I thought was a glimmer of light.  I strained to keep seeing it, hoping it was not just some willful illusion.  With a few more rolls and bobs,  there it was!  The darkness had turned to dawn. With one wild ride I surfed what seemed to me to be a huge wave and found myself knotted up in a ball on a mound of sand.  How I got to be laid out like a hammock on the tops of the dune grasses is a mystery that we will never know.  I felt the warmth of the sun beating on my soul and slowly began to feel a bit dry but wrinkled. I knew the ocean that so quickly took me away had returned me to some beach dune far away.  Worn out, salty and shriveled, I lay motionless.  A few folks passed by on their early morning beach walk but never noticed me. I must have been looking pretty bad.  Then it happened .... I heard a familiar voice shout out “My hat, my hat, look Jay, it is my hat!”  That voice, the one with the Maine accent, the one that I had grown to love, ran into the dune and scooped me up, hugged me to her chest, placed me on her head and with tears in her eyes said “It’s the Holden Beach Miracle”.