His shaded grey eyes were locked on mine as he waited for my answer. I noticed the hard creases lining the edges of his eyes and spread a tentative smile across my face as I replied, “It’s all yours” and gestured towards the vast blue ocean before me. The man nodded and reached up to tip the ripped edge of his worn out brown cowboy hat to me. As he turned toward the ocean I heard a high-pitched beep from the small silver camera his son held up beside me, and I knew this would be a special moment. The old cowboy walked bow-legged straight towards the vast roaring blue ocean, the thick heels of his dusty leather boots sinking into the soft, fine, wet, sand. The frothy tide raced up the beach towards the cowboy’s boots before slowing down and staying put just long enough for him to bend over at the waist and reach a shaky arthritis-ridden hand towards the water. His cracked fingertips caught the edge of the tide as it receded, all too quickly.

The cowboy stood rooted to his spot and turned eagerly towards his son who still held the silver camera up behind me. Water filled the cowboy’s eyes and big salty tears fell down the deep creases in his face. They fell and mixed with the salty spray of the ocean.

“I touched it!” he exclaimed, giddy as a toddler with a new toy. “I touched it” he repeated.

He was crying.

With a roar, another wave came racing up the cool sand on this overcast day and the old cowboy took hasty steps away from the rushing tide. He flung out his arms to steady himself. He turned to me and thanked me with his shaded grey eyes that were now filled with joy. It was as if I was the one who owned the ocean and had permitted him to touch the sea. The bow-legged cowboy turned around and walked away, back towards his previously land-locked life with his dusty worn leather boots a shade darker from the ocean’s spray. With the memory of the time he first touched the sea. With my eyes trailing after him and filling with tears of my own. With a thousand unspoken thank you’s. Leaving me with the key that unlocked a piece of my heart. His footprints faded in the cool, wet sand.