There’s something inherently romantic about a dock. Whether a commercial pier on the city dockyards to a private pleasure craft wharf on a bay to a ramshackle canoe dock on a country lake, there’s just something about them that stirs the romantic’s soul.

Have you ever noticed how people tend to linger when on a dock? The hustle and bustle of activity on a commercial pier certainly draws people’s attention and gives reason to pause, but have you ever lingered on a deserted city pier at night? Have you noticed how quiet it can be despite the constant drone of the surrounding city? How that quiet pier seems like a refuge from the city’s perpetual motion and noise?

How many of you have lingered on the dock after the boat is secured and it’s time to get home for supper? Sure, you’re just double checking the lines–or your SlideMoor™ connections–and taking a last look for the day at your beautiful boat. But don’t you find yourself pausing sometimes just to enjoy being on the dock? Sometimes it calls for sitting on the dock with your legs hanging over the side and a beer in hand. Perhaps with a close friend or two, as you reminisce while listening to the lap of the waves and watching the boating activity lazily wind down.

Have you ever watched the night sky from the dock? Seen the different moon phases or just gazed in awe at the billions of glittering stars? Perhaps you and three of your closest friends laid down on a dock to watch a meteorite shower when you were a pre-adolescent. Between loud exclamations of “there’s one!” you quietly talked about the mysteries of adulthood and tried to fathom the immensity of the universe.

You must have experienced at least one beautiful sunset while sitting on a dock with a loved one. And perhaps that same loved one was with you on a date back when you were a teenager. One of those endless summer nights when the future was unknown but everything still possible. You and your date had quietly eased away from the gang to take a walk. Found yourself on the end of someone’s dock. Marvelled at the beauty of the night sky and incredible mirror-still waters of the harbor. Somehow broke through the endless awkward pause with that first long, lingering kiss….

For those of you thinking bunk!–a dock’s a dock is a dock, I ask you to listen to that classic Otis Redding song that begins:

“Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun

I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ comes

Watchin’ the ships roll in

Then I watch ‘em roll away again, yeah

I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay

Watchin’ the tide roll away….”

And if that doesn’t stir your soul, you don’t have a romantic bone in your body.

—Originally published July 15, 2015 by SlideMoor.com.