Cake Day

The other day on Facebook, I saw an entry from a friend of mine, Pat Fusco, directing us to a website that extolled the virtues of Cake Day. Of course, I was curious.

I clicked and read and decided it was a great idea. Originally, the idea was to eat cake today, just for the fun of it - for breakfast, even. The idea expanded to the simple idea of taking a little time on this day to appreciate life, to savor it as you would a piece of cake. Seemed especially apt as it falls on my Dad's birthday, a guy who enjoyed his life fully.

Since I didn't bake a cake, I thought I'd share this little photo of the short curve of beach below our house. It has been called the Kozy Kove for as long as Richmond has been a city. Originally, it was the site for the kind of amusement park and bathing facility that was popular in the last century when women wore bloomers into the water. After that craze was over, people bought the land and built small summer cottages on it. Later owners winterized those houses and, one by one, the hill on the bay side filled with homes, no two alike and most are very quirky in structure and layout. One might even call the town a little haphazard.

Oddly, for the fourteen years we have lived here, it was rare to see anyone down on the beach except the occasional seal resting in the shallows or flaneur looking for driftwood or sea glass. It's not easy to reach this little stretch of sand unless it's low tide, and even then one must hurry back around the rocky border before the waves fill back in. Even the owners of the houses that border the beach didn't use it much. We would look down from our perch on the hillside and shake our heads in disbelief that anyone with access to the beach wouldn't be out there day and night.

But recently, a new family has rented one of the houses on the cove and they are obviously enjoying the beach. We see them frequently walking their two joyously free dogs in the evening and it's not unusual to see them stretched out on a blanket having a picnic. There have been beach parties and bonfires this year. It's fun to see the cove being used and enjoyed at last.

Yesterday evening, we looked down as the sun was setting and saw someone, presumably the new neighbors, had written and drawn in the smooth sand. Perhaps this is a message for those of us up on the hill? Or maybe it is drawn for a particular person. In any case, we enjoyed the words, "U R Perfect" and the smiley face that first caught our attention.

That's an idea for Cake Day - to appreciate nature's gifts for a conscious moment and to be thankful for people who write love letters to others.