Signs of growth

December already?

Yet again I find myself asking how we’ve so quickly ended up at the end of the year. Have I been in some sort of daze for the last 11 months? Where did it all go? 

The end of the year is always a great opportunity to catalog your growth. What changed, what didn’t? I’ve always thought the ocean is a fitting metaphor for our own ability to evolve. So when I learned that San Diego’s beaches have been growing, it felt like a nice reminder of this parallel. 

A new report from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows that many of San Diego’s beaches are recovering from last year’s erosive El Niño, with most of the sites they tracked getting wider over the past year (Pacific Beach and Mission Beach weren’t included in the study, unfortunately).

The findings are reassuring. San Diego’s coastline has remained stable for nearly four decades. Wide beaches are a good thing for beach communities. A bigger coastline means more protection from erosion and flooding, safer shorelines and more space to set up your beach gear. 

It’s comforting to know that the beaches we call home continue to rebuild and restore themselves. Growth isn’t always linear, but the ocean shows us how beautifully it can be done.

Have a great weekend!