Pam's Daily Wave...

Good Morning and Welcome to Thursday from my Atlantic Life in Hatteras 😊

I thought this morning you may like to read the genesis of "My Atlantic Life".

Although I have posted snippets before, this is the full version.

So here goes....

My Atlantic Life…Adventures of a Restless Filly

My Atlantic life began 4000 miles away, next to the Atlantic Ocean, in a small beach town called Ayr, in Scotland. Now, over 50 years later, I find myself living in Hatteras Village, a tiny dot on the US map, which lies on a ribbon of sand, 30 miles from the North Carolina mainland on the Outer Banks…in the Atlantic Ocean.

My hometown of Ayr, Scotland

Aerial view of Scotland

Aerial view of the Outer Banks

How many times have I crossed that incredible, vast, body of water?...I've lost count. The Atlantic Ocean has seen me at my happiest, my saddest, my most enthused, my most drained, my most hopeful and my most hopeless, my lost and my found - My Atlantic Ocean…my constant.

I've always known that my heart belongs to the ocean, the same way some people know there's belongs to the mountains. It's not to say that I can't be happy in other places, I absolutely can, and have been many times. But there's just a special, indescribable feeling of belonging, that the ocean brings me.

A Piscean, I truly am a water sign – I need the element H20 not only to survive, but to thrive. I feel an incredible calmness when I can be near water - being born and growing up in a small coastal town, probably plays a big part in this. With miles and miles of wide, sandy beaches - this was where I always headed to when I needed to think, to clear my head - the feeling of the salty breeze on my face, the sound of the crashing or lapping waves, the ever changing, ever moving water.

My hometown beach

My hometown sunset over the island of Arran

Some of my earliest memories, are of my Mom taking me to the beach during the summers. She would walk us to a beautiful beach, where she would spread a large blanket on the sand, and we would stay most of the day. Just playing in the sand, paddling in the water, and eating the simple lunch of sandwiches that she had made earlier that morning, which always tasted so much yummier, when eaten on the beach...….and then the long walk back home, still smelling the salty sea air, feeling the warmth of the late afternoon sun on our skin - with no care or worries in the world.

My spirit recovers....💗

As I grew up, the beach was a place that I would go to feel better about teenage heartaches, have late night parties, escape arguing parents, try to forget about school pressures etc.….and as I was older, it was the place I would go to find calm and think through my own marriage problems, work challenges, money worries, it was even the place I grieved for the loss of my father – I would find solace, my broken heart would start to mend and my spirit recover, when I could be on a beach…..next to the Atlantic Ocean.

Over the years I have often been referred to as a Restless Filly, always searching for something new, different, more exciting, and happy to move from one place to another, seeking that new job, project or challenge.… my next grand adventure! I'm the quintessential Restless Filly… and maybe it was because I was always looking to come home to a place, to something centered in me, somewhere I belonged.

I’ve nearly always trusted my gut instincts…. that feeling that pushes or pulls me to something new. Have I any regrets or made many mistakes or bad decisions? – absolutely, although my biggest messes were generally when I had not trusted my instincts, questioned my sometimes-crazy logic or gone with someone else’s idea or opinion.

But I’d like to think that I’ve learned by my many mistakes… that on the whole, when I look back, I haven’t done that badly for a shy girl, from a modest home, in a small, quiet, seaside town in Scotland - When I think of the things I've done, the amazing places I've traveled to all over the world, the great jobs I’ve held, the awesome people (and not so awesome…) I've met, the opportunities that have presented themselves to me, the incredibly fun things I've been able to experience, the love I've felt and drawn on to make me strong, the many life lessons I've learned and I'm still learning…If I hadn’t trusted my instincts, taken the risks and followed my dreams, I would most likely still be in my hometown, living with and working alongside the people I went to school with, not travelling outside of Scotland and would most probably been happy….but there would always have been a yearning for something else, something more…I needed to follow my dreams.

After 10 years as a cardiac physiologist working in hospitals and clinics, and then 18 years in clinical research, I had well and truly climbed the career ladder. Holding positions of Chief, Senior Director, Vice President, and Managing Director in clinical care, industry, and academia, I had been devoted to my work. For years I was infused by my career, empowered by it, thrived in the competitive environment and always the “go to person” for challenging problems… But after training as a leadership, career and life coach and spending more of my time coaching, it became really apparent to me, while I may have been great at helping other people to find that elusive work/life balance and to start creating the life they dreamed of - as my wise and wonderful husband pointed out on more than one occasion, whilst I was highly successful at empowering and coaching other people to have less stress, to re calibrate, and to change their lives for the better, I was absolutely awful at taking my own advice.

For years I had worked 60 plus hours a week, weekends, holidays, even cancelling vacations due to whatever crisis de jour had hit, answering my work cellphone whenever it would ring, day or night regardless of where I was or who I was with…I had completely lost myself in my work and in my world and wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.

As in so many times in the past, when I was confused and unable to reach the answers to what was going wrong in my life, I knew in my heart that I needed to be next to the Atlantic Ocean to clear my head. So, I packed a bag, and headed to the Outer Banks, a place I had always found myself drawn to, a unique strip of sand in the Atlantic.

The Road to Hatteras 🥰

Many years before, I found a little card that had a picture of a mermaid with the words “she knew someday the sea would call her home”, I often looked at the pretty, little card, and just knew that this was so true for me. Although I loved our beautiful farm in Hillsborough, NC where we had lived for many years, there was always a missing element for me…The Atlantic

Driving over the bridge that day from Manteo to Nags Head, I felt a shift.... the sea was calling me home.

The next morning sitting on the beach, watching the sunrise whilst drinking my coffee …I knew it was time.

I spent the next few days on the beach writing down copious amounts of thoughts and ideas in my journal and planning how to break the news to my more risk averse husband, that it was time to sell the horse farm and move to the Outer Banks.

Fast forward six months to one dark and chilly evening in January 2020, when I was browsing through some beach properties on the internet (JB should never leave me alone with my laptop when I have time to “just look”, it usually leads to mischief or an adventure!), I stumbled across a property called the Seaside Inn in Hatteras. An extremely old and historic inn established in 1928, which I later found out, was the first hotel ever built on Hatteras.

That night was the start of my wonderful new adventure…

Established in 1928

The tired and leaking inn we bought in April 2020

I made an appointment the next day to see the hotel and started the 5-hour drive from the farm to Hatteras. I remember crossing the majestic Herbert C. Bonner bridge that sweeps over the Oregon Inlet, marveling at the sight of the beautiful water of the Pamlico Sound on one side of me, and the magnificent and truly awe- inspiring Atlantic Ocean on the other. I suddenly felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders and that there was a certain magic in the air. The further I drove down Highway 12, the more I marveled at this wild and beautiful place winding my way through Rodanthe, Salvo and Waves, then Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and finally to my destination, as far as you can drive without getting on a ferry (or making an extremely large splash in the water)– Hatteras Village…and the moment I set my eyes on the old inn, I fell in love…

A few months later, we had sold the farm and bought the Inn, despite the fact that John never actually got to see the property before we put in our offer to purchase. Due to COVID-19 restrictions the Outer Banks had shut off access for non-residents, so John had to trust my instincts and agree to move forward with this new life changing adventure😉

And so it had begun…the rather unwieldy and rather expensive task of renovating our beautiful, historic, but extremely rundown inn – a building with multiple, large holes in the roof that leaked like a sieve every time it rained, a large exterior wall that was rotten and needed replacing, windows that were cracked or didn’t open, deck rails that were unsafe, and the endless “To Do” lists to get the inn back to a functioning hotel that guests could enjoy.

We’re still working on those lists – a century old building needs a huge amount of TLC and time devoted to it, but we are also incredibly happy, we love our inn, our lives in Hatteras and the incredible people that live here.

Re-established 2021 - The Atlantic Inn

Most mornings now, we rise super early, I grab my coffee, walk the five minutes to the beach and there I catch my first glimpse of the ocean, just before sunrise. Every day is so different and completely unique but the one thing that every morning does have in common though, is the Atlantic’s mesmerizing and breathtaking beauty.

My Hatteras Mornings...

I walk along the beach for a while, my foggy head becoming clearer with every wave that washes on the shore, and I start my new day with hope and possibility.

As I sit on my Hatteras beach and drink my coffee, I love to ponder that, when I look out over the ocean into the far-off horizon, my homeland lies. The thought that I could get in a boat (hypothetically of course), sail Northeast over the horizon, follow the gulf stream, and, without touching land, I would eventually arrive in my birth town in Scotland, warms my heart. My beaches are connected by the Atlantic, and if I dip my toes in the water here in my beloved Hatteras, perhaps that same water will travel thousands of miles and kiss the sandy shores of my hometown in Scotland.

My Hatteras sunrise coffee...

I'm so happy living next to the ocean, with only a five-minute walk to reach the beach, I can always hear and smell the sea, which means I can breathe, truly breathe…. Like I did as a child, running freely without a care in the world, along the sandy beach of Ayr. Completely unaware of the crazy world in which I lived, unaware of any hatred or violence, greed or nastiness. All that mattered in that innocent moment, was the feeling of the sand beneath my feet, the salty air blowing through my hair, the glorious sun on my face and that feeling of being loved and happy…Living in Hatteras, on the Outer Banks, is giving me that joy of breathing again – of being Happy.

Even now, I still have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming, that I actually get to live on this incredibly special island all year round. I have rapidly fallen in love with its beauty, wildness, and the people that live here. I don't remember in the past 30 years, smiling as much as I do here in Hatteras, and I can’t imagine ever wanting to leave this place.

Living in Hatteras gives me a feeling of belonging…that I’m in exactly the right place, at exactly the right time for me to live my dream…I’ve come home to My Atlantic.

My dolphins 💗

Until Next Time...

Take care, Stay Safe and....I have named my life... "My Atlantic Life"....What would you call yours?

Love and Hugs,

Pam

PS. Continuing to keep the incredibly resilient people of the Ukraine in my thoughts and prayers 🙏

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