When our daughter was born I asked my husband if we could always find some way to make it to a beach every year. Her name in Latin means “of the sea.” For centuries the Ever Blessed Virgin Mother Mary has been called “Stella Maris,” the Star of the Sea, and I wanted my baby to love the ocean just as my mother, her namesake did. She used to speak of powder white sand when she visited Florida in her youth. So I did some researching as I wanted our first family beach trip to be special, and I wanted to start collecting seashells for our little one. A family member recommended Naples and I am so glad we took her advice! This was the view from our hotel room. You can see the ocean in the background and the fresh water estuaries in the foreground. I found the estuaries absolutely fascinating and started learning as much about them as I could. They are incredibly vital to that ecosystem and of course development is encroaching upon them. One thing I loved about this hotel is they did not disturb the natural landscape. They even had signs warning of crocodiles, so the estuaries were the wildlife’s domain. My husband was anxious to get out the next day and explore Fort Myers so this was as close to the ocean as we got on our first day. He has never liked lounging on a beach and the only beach experience I had was competing in the Miss Texas USA pageant in Padre Island. Based upon my encounter I never considered myself to be a beach person either. Nevertheless we were glad to be there and we had no idea how it would change our lives. The Israeli politician and sixth Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin said:
“Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth.”
We did not know it yet but peace, sunshine, the smile of our child, the love I felt as a mother, the joy evident on my husband’s face as a father, and the togetherness we shared as a family is exactly what we would find in Naples, Florida.
