My first winter solstice beach visit had real substance. I was closing out a year in which my marriage disintegrated and looking towards a year in which I would reset the direction of my life. My following winter solstice was a northern one β I was in Krakow, Poland, so no beaches. I missed β I simply forgot how good it is to go to the beach on the winter solstice.
Last year I remembered and made the journey to Malabar Beach No. I noted the best and worst things of the year gone and, then, destroyed the list.
The good and bad alike were equally past. With the solstice comes the beginning of more light coming into the world, well my half of the world, and a good time to be expansive and hopeful. When I set off for Mona Vale No. I read them on the long bus ride up there. And read them over lunch. And I read them with coffee. But I like the Winter Solstice beach tradition and that put the oomph in my get up and go. That and the glorious winter sun and clear blue sky which greet me on the morning of 23 June two days after the solstice.
It takes a couple of hours, and two bus rides, to get from my home in Newtown to Mona Vale. Newtown residents are mostly white; Mona Vale residents are mostly white β in both places many people are Australian born. But the innate vibe is so different β this is a classically suburban place full of single-family homes, and car-commutes, by the beach. Armchair Collective looked promising on line and more so in person. My salad is hyper-healthy and tasty details below.
To my left a young family with a fussing bub, to my right two young uni students studying for a test, at a nearby table a couple in their 60s lingering over their coffees and the weekend newspapers. A surfer β wetsuit peeled down off his torso β wanders in for a coffee.
