The welcome back season

You can tell the winter people are coming back by the traffic. It isn't a complaint, exactly. It's more like a change in the weather you can read from the car: the left lane gets slower, the parking lots get fuller, and every other license plate seems to be from somewhere cold.

I've learned to love it. For a few months the whole town gets a little louder, the restaurants hum earlier in the evening, and the beach has a crowd at sunset that applauds when the sun finally touches the water. Not everyone knows to do that, and the ones who do are a joy to stand next to.

There's a way of living here in the busy season that I think of as generous patience. You leave ten minutes early. You wave somebody in. You take the long way past the bay because the short way is a parking lot. You remember that every one of those folks drove or flew a long way to stand in warm air and watch the sky turn gold.

So welcome back. The sand is warm, the water is calm, and there's room on the beach for one more blanket.