Another Gift from the Sea

In Chicken Soup for the Soul's Time to Thrive, I wrote about my lifelong love affair with the Pacific Ocean in my story "Right Back Where I Started From." Now Denise Bossarte, in her quietly delightful volume of poems, rekindles my affection not only for the ocean itself, but also for the shore. In Dreams of the Turtle King, Bossarte catalogs what she finds when she visits the south Florida beaches: people, animals, things and thoughts.

My favorite poem, "Flock of Pelicans," brought a smile to my daughter-in-law's face last week. I read her the poem and showed her the delicate illustration by Nancy Standlee of a pelican in flight. Though she's in critical condition in a local hospital, the mention of pelicans elicited a strong response. A while back, Mari Lou, as a "Pelican Partner," actually released a baby pelican back into the wild through a program sponsored by International Bird Rescue, in exchange for a $500 donation to that wildlife agency. This was her 50th birthday gift from my son. https://52906.thankyou4caring.org/Donate

Since these are unsettling days for me, I, too, am deriving great pleasure from opening this book at random each night before I turn off the bedside lamp. Last night I read "Boy Digging." It brought back memories of one afternoon in my childhood, where I dug nearly to China in the sands near San Francisco's old Playland at the Beach. In those years I didn't worry about tracking sand into the house, since somebody else would have to clean it up...not me. And I dug and dug and dug until I could nearly hear the rattle of rickshaws, the image the mention of China evoked in me when I was eight years old.

Bossarte and Standlee have paired to produce a book that will stir up pleasant memories for anybody who treasures the memories of carefree treks to the beach.

This book is available for nature lovers in paperback or on Kindle at Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Turtle-King-Inspired-Florida/dp/1492841943

Learn more about Bossarte and Standlee here:
http://www.dreamsoftheturtleking.com/