Baton Rouge, La. — Three months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged my home state of Louisiana in 2005, my wife and I took our family to Florida for a few days to get away from it all. The storm had spared our home, but the recovery added big burdens to our professional lives, and the work exhausted us. A week in Orlando with our two small children proved good medicine.
Our visit reminded me of other times when Florida renewed my spirit. When I lost my father as a teenager, going to Pensacola eased my grief. I brought back a few seashells as souvenirs, and the sound they made when cupped to my ear seemed like the voice of nature itself, intimate and inexhaustible.
Image: Waves crashing against a seawall in Jensen Beach, Fla., on Saturday. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times
