Going gently

lately, the beach has been a place I return to gently.

---

I imagine renewal has a fragrance to it

perhaps citrus-hued
or mutely melanated

it settles slowly
into the collar of your shirt
and follows you home

the breeze smells different this season
it is lived in

like sunlight on old fabric
and hands held honestly

it blows less hurried somehow
seemingly less interested in leaving

it meanders through people willing
to meet themselves
further than they have ever been met

and maybe that is all renewal is

a softer way of arriving
to your own life