“All that we deeply love
become a part of us.”
Helen Keller

How often do you wish you could pick up the phone for just one more call to someone you love who is no longer with you?

The Great Highway, a 2.3-mile roadway which paralleled the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco, was recently closed to motor traffic and transformed into what is now called Sunset Dunes Park, a recreation area for walkers, joggers, runners, bikers, scooter riders, skateboarders, and people on roller blades. Some like the change. Many do not. What I do know is that one of the most beautiful, peaceful walks in San Francisco is along this roadway between Sloat Boulevard to the south and Lincoln Way to the north.

The new park includes a few unique features: hammocks, benches, exercise equipment, a small skatepark and bicycle skills course, artwork, occasional live music, and… a telephone. Yes, a telephone, but not just any telephone.

Where Ortega Street ends at the beach, there is a phone booth, of sorts. It’s not your typical phone booth. (Do such things even exist anymore?) This phone invites passers-by to make a call to someone they love who is no longer with us.

Ocean Calling offers a unique opportunity to speak words of love, grief, and remembrance into the wind and waves of the Pacific Ocean. The phone is not connected to a land line. It’s a prop, one which may be used, or not, to connect with a loved one.

Just to the right of the phone booth is a small sign, easily overlooked. I happened to notice it for the first time last week. The sign reads:
 
“Here, at the edge of the continent, where the Pacific Ocean’s power is palpable, you are invited into a portal for speaking to your lost loved ones. When you offer your words through  the wind and waves, you join an interconnected web of people who have made and received calls.”

The intention of Ocean Calling is to make grief visible and communal, to replace shame and isolation with the possibility of catharsis and maybe even connection to others.

Sunset Dunes Park is more than just a recreation area. It is a sacred space, a venue which invites and encourages visitors to engage in thoughtful reflection and prayer, to express joy and grief, to enjoy companionship or solitude, and to experience the awesome power of nature. It is also a perfect location to take a moment’s pause… for gratitude.