My reasoning behind it being during her travels she leaves home (the tide sweeps onto the beach) but when she misses her family so much she finally returns (the tide returns to the ocean). Hope it helps maybe use nature or something that goes in a pattern of some sort?
Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus. — Enid Bagnold