Living is very serious, very real. It is also always a game. If we are wise, it is very real, very terrible, and very lovely, and a good deal of fun.

But not all scars showed, did they?

What?" She drew herself up, stern as a cat presented with the wrong food for dinner.

Surely a woman who picked a spot so close to the ocean didn't automatically hide from the rain.

Bleeding isn't optional for most of us.

It's okay to play turtle for a while, as long as you don't get too fond of your shell.

We don't go to the ocean for anything as simple as happiness, do we? We go there to feel alive. Like life, the ocean holds chance and change, grief and terror and beauty. It promises mortality, not peace.