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The Florida beach life revolves around thankfulness for natural beauty
You know, if you Google Florida beach life you’ll get an assortment of sites ranging from wanting to sell you condo room rentals or resort accommodations to a business strategy...but not much on exactly what that phrase might encompass. To me, the Florida beach life is a combination of spirituality with real-world experiences. What does all of that cosmic hocus-pocus mean? In a conch shell, it is being thankful to the Universe that I can wake each morning to the sound of birds greeting the dawn, a soft breeze floating through my place, the clean smell of the ocean, and a natural environment where I can enrich my physical health.
I normally wear a tank top under my shirt because I run over on Madeira Beach or Treasure Island. A bar of soap in a baggie, along with a travel-size bottle of baby shampoo tucked inside my running shoes and I am good to go. There are outside showers and you get pretty tough when the water is only one temperature. For me, mornings on the beach are the best time. I listen real hard in the quietness as I stretch and loosen up. The waves coming onto the shore have their own rhythm, punctuated only by the cries of Ring Bill Gulls or the bleating of Royal Terns. Traffic noise is far away...as is the floor-it-and-wait-at-the-stoplight mentality of hurriedness.
When I need to take a day off from running, I like to go up to the top deck at Johns Pass Village and relax in the wooden chairs outside The Shipwreck Store while I watch the sun come up over Boca Ciega Bay. Fishing boats pass below as they head out into the Gulf to get fresh seafood for the area restaurants. This past year has been a little tough, though, because of all the construction equipment jammed into Pass. Still, when I focus on the east and see the dawn sun highlighting the small islands as it reaches into the harbor, I kind of forget about the mess near the bridge.
The remaining few hours are taken up with reading something from the used book store or a book mailed to me by a friend. The sounds of the Gulf, bird life, and the breeze are the perfect background for a good novel. I find myself reading a hundred pages at a time...if I don’t nod off from running hard intervals. I've been blessed to read the complete works of John Grisham, Lee Child, Pete Dawson and Louis L'Amour...along with assorted non-fiction books in the past two years alone. The afternoon is spent running mild errands and working my online business. I try not to be too hurried about anything. The Florida beach life is meant to be lived in ease with my surroundings.
The Florida beach life is best shared with a quality woman. Either way, it is one more opportunity to be thankful for the natural beauty and simplicity I find each day in the Florida beach life. I am blessed to live where I do. The barrier islands provide something interesting and new each day. If you get the chance to visit or retire on a Florida beach, I wish you the same happiness and fulfillment I have found here.
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My standard dress for the day is an Aloha shirt, swim trunks with cargo pockets that double as shorts, and some $3.00 flip-flops from the Madeira Beach Winn-Dixie. 
The beach bars where I eat breakfast have outside seating where you can enjoy watching the beach come to life as the sun gets higher. Visitors bring a fresh outlook and different insights and they help me remain thankful for the life I enjoy. 
As late afternoon approaches, I think either about heading to one of the many beach bars and having a cold beer as I watch the sunset or meeting someone for dinner and watch it together. 