There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
When you’re depressed and sad and you feel all the air escaping your lungs, you should get in your car and drive west. Get a coffee first or a large iced tea for the road, then get on the 10 freeway and roll down the windows and put on a playlist specifically with songs that feel familiar. Go west until you hit PCH and the smell of seaweed and sunscreen wafts into your car. Take the winding freeway down awhile into you find a good spot that’s not too empty and not too full. I like Topanga beach right next to the Thai food place. Get your towel and your beverage and a book or maybe a pair of headphones and head down to the sand. Don’t think about the fact that you’re maybe wearing the wrong shoes or that you forgot your sunscreen. Just immediately put your feet in the sand and take a very long, slow breath. Lay down for a while. Feel the stillness of the sand, the density under you, like a mother holding a baby. Let the sun feel hot and striking, let a little sweat build, embrace intensity. When you eventually go to the water, let the waves envelop you. Taste the bits of salt water and sand in your mouth, shiver from the cold, let the goosebumps form. Go back to your towel and enjoy the sun until you must leave. And when you get home, sit in the sleepy post sun drunk feeling as long as you can…