Diamonds on the Water

Walking around the bend in the path, I wasn’t happy about the humid heat enveloping me. I’d started my walk early that morning to avoid it. Now I was facing into the sun, its rays piercing my skin. As I grow older, my skin, especially my forearms, breaks out in itchy red bumps. It wasn’t even mid-summer yet, I mused, as my mind wandered back in time. 

Heat, the sun, and I had history. As a young child, I remember having to take cold baths in tea to soothe my blistered skin after days at the beach. I suffered from painful headaches and nausea if I forgot my hat or stayed out too long under the scorching sun’s rays. I once decided it was OK to go for a run along an ocean beach on a cloudy day. That night, my pale face was on fire and bright red. That was in California. The concert band from my university was touring and played a concert that night. I was so embarrassed as people stared at my face. 

I’d arrived in California in August to endless days and nights of heat. I’d enrolled in a university in the middle of the San Joaquin valley and knew it was hot, but it was a different heat. It was hard to breathe as I walked around the campus to my classes. Nevermind, I told myself, fall is coming and with it cooler weather. September and October, my body ached for the smell of autumn and the crisp morning frost. California only has two seasons, I thought, summer heat and winter rain. My focus wasn’t as sharp as it usually was in the Fall because it didn’t feel like fall. Summer had me in its throws for four months.

My reverie continued to the first time I’d encountered heat when my family moved to Osoyoos, B.C. We couldn’t wait to go to the beach to swim. Shortly after we arrived, we headed down to the lake with new beach towels and bathing suits. Imagine our shock when each step on the beach’s fine sand burned our soles. I detected laughter as the three of us yelled and hopped as fast as we could to the water’s edge. The next time we went to the beach, we all wore flip-flops. Then someone, I don’t remember who, said we could fry an egg on our sidewalk. It was true; the egg cooked right there on the sidewalk. 

Osoyoos was hot, but nothing compared to Japan’s heat. I was a teenager when I travelled to Japan with a concert band from the Okanagan. In Canada I rarely sweat, but the heat and humidity caused me to drip profusely and turned my face red again. My hair also turned carrot red in the humidity. So this red-faced, red-haired, five-foot-eight-inch teenager of Swedish heritage stood out like Freyja, the Norse goddess, in a sea of short, black-haired people.  

On the train ride to my billet in the small city of Kofu, someone attempted to rip my wig from my head. While wandering around the Expo ‘70 grounds where we played daily, I always wandered with other tall band members so I could find them after being surrounded by groups of Japanese people asking for my autograph. That’s how different I looked to them. 

The only other time I experienced extreme heat was the year Chris and I travelled to San Antonio to visit his dad and his wife. We’d been travelling since 6:30am, leaving cool drizzly weather behind.  

We arrived in San Antonio at 11:30pm, thinking the night air would be cooler. It wasn’t. The minute we stepped out of the air-conditioned airport into the parking garage, we hit a wall of hot, humid air. My lungs struggled as I gulped in such dense air. Not a good start, I thought. It might be tough to exist in such heat. It turned out that as long as we were transiting from one air-conditioned spot to another, I was fine.

The time we had together created memories that will last forever. We delighted in trying all of Bob and Julie’s favourite restaurants, exploring the Museum, and hanging out. We landed back in Comox to howling wind and driving rain. Shivering, we frantically pulled our carry-on luggage apart to get to the jackets we’d packed and didn’t use since leaving the Comox Valley a week earlier. 

My mind returned to my walk beside the ocean, thinking the heat I faced here wasn’t even close to the heat I’d experienced before. Grateful for this beautiful ocean-side valley, my gaze drifted across the river to a patch of glittering light. The sight was so beautiful and somewhat mystical as the patch seemed to move across the water. I grabbed my camera and took the above photo. Diamonds on the water, I thought.

How interesting it is to experience the sun’s heat in different parts of the world. It made me feel miniscule next to the power of the sun, but those diamonds of light shining, sparkling, and moving across the water as the sun rose brought a new perspective. I worried less about my itchy arms and focussed on how a beautiful sight had moved me. I thought about the amazing experiences I’d had travelling to those hot places. The diamonds on the water faded away as the angle of the sun changed, and then they were gone. 

Listen to the river, it echoes softly. Drifting in my memories; the sound of summer.

Listen to my heartbeat as I lie dreaming, everywhere is whispering the sound of summer. 

The diamonds on the water are falling from the sun.

The diamonds on the water…

Sung by Enya, lyrics by Roma Ryan, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Ltd.