There’s a beach at South West Rocks in northern NSW called Trial Bay. It is the only place in my childhood that I remember being really, genuinely happy.
I haven’t been there in probably close to twenty years now but I can still taste the salt water when I would accidentally swallow it if I went into the proper surf, and the sweetness of this green apple syrup I would get on my snow cones that a random fella would sell there every summer. The sunburns I would get were insane because I would just spend all day snorkelling in the shallows. There wasn’t anything that interesting to look at but I was captivated by the idea that there was like a whole other little world under the surface of the water.
Whenever I think about what being at peace would feel like for me I think about those days at that beach.
