There are big things and there are little things that you go through in life, but I think it is in the unusual little things that make life worth living. The big things… everyone goes through the big things. We are born, we go through school, we get careers, we get families, we grow old, we die. Those don’t define your life, though. It’s the little adventures in between the big things that make life unique.

This picture popped up on my radar.

It reminded me of one night 3 years ago. It was just a night, and something random we ended up doing, but it’s the  little things. I was living in the dorms at my university, and buried and muddled under the homework, studying, and client projects that plague my life continuously. My friend, SD, gave me a call. He was a friend from high school who has thoroughly enriched my life in the short spurts of times he’s come and gone through it.

That night, he told me he was coming out to hang out with me. He said we were going to the beach. So he showed up at my dorms, we loaded up in the car and went down to the town just below my city. It was 10 at night. We snuck onto the beach, which was closed after dark. We scoured the sand for tools. On finding sticks, we began drawing.

Thirty minutes, maybe an hour passed. I can’t remember what we drew, but we were alone on the beach, so we utilized our space. Our art was a mixture of words and conjoined line art and sketches. I believe there was a heart and an octopus involved in some fashion. It doesn’t matter what it was, now. It mattered to us then, though. We were pouring our soul into the lines on that beach that night.

Then, with barely a parting glance, we snuck off the beach and returned to our lives.

That night, the tide came in and washed away our drawings. Whatever it was that was disturbing our thoughts and moving our spirits that night was taken away with the waves, and the beach was a clean slate by morning. Our efforts were useless. No one saw our drawings. No money was made from them. No productivity came from it. The time came and went. The tide came and went.

Poetic moments like that are the spice that give life enough flavor to make it worthwhile. I sometimes forget to drop everything and go do something completely pointless that will mean nothing to anyone in the world but me when morning comes.