While on vacation at the beach, I saw a sign that read, “The longer you look at the ocean the more you see.”

This phrase struck a chord in me, I guess because there is something so prophetic in its implication.

Also, I know there is a part of me that struggles with breathing in its meaning.

I have become the world’s worst at living in the moment. I seem to always either be envisioning the future or rehashing the past, while the here and now swims past me.

And when life gets sticky and complicated, these tendencies of mine just escalate, sometimes even splashing on to others.

One would think at my age things would have become “beachy” by now, but the older I have grown, I seem to have just dug myself deeper into the sand.

I think this temperament of mine may have begun when I was in my 20s and had just started my family.

I remember times when I would complain about the monotony of doing laundry. Washing and folding is not the most exciting of jobs, but having clean clothes for my little family was a blessing I sometimes failed to recognize.

Worrying about what teachers they got in school and if their peers would like them was a constant concern, but everything worked out. If I had only not fretted as much, I might have had a few less wrinkles.

I have put so much time and energy into aspects of life I have no control over, and here I am nearing my sixth decade of life still clinging to a mindset that is nothing more than a flimsy inner tube.

Letting go and letting life take you on a voyage is one of the hardest things for me to do, but if I don’t start loosening the ropes that are so tethered to the dock, I am going to miss the sunset.

There is a calm that comes from sitting beachside, listening to the ebb and flow of the waves as they crash along the shoreline.

But there can be so much more than just listening to the rhythm of the gulf. It is time to jump in and feel the chill of the water and taste the salt as the spray rises.

And when it is time to climb out, I will look back at the ocean and smile at what I “sea.”

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. Readers are invited to submit their opinions for publication.