Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Reflections at LeCount Hollow


We love to go walking at LeCount Hollow Beach at low tide. Why? Firm sand.

We visit LeCount Hollow Beach often. It never looks the same. Wide blue sky, white foam from crashing waves, beige sand. Beige is such a calming color!

At this time of year, the beach is deserted. Today there was one surfer out, wearing a wet suit and determination.

The shadows of two men passed, close by the dune. Each clutched a buoy, a prize with which to decorate a house. I imagined the clapboard, covered with buoys, blue, green, white, orange and red.

I studied the prints of paws and claws as we walked along. I noticed recent guests: seagulls, sandpipers, dogs. Bits of crab shell indicated we had just missed a great seagull banquet.

Sometimes we pick up plastic, evidence of the carelessness of humans.

Pebbles were strewn all over the beach. Last week they were in heaps, here and there. Sometimes the waves leave the pebbles in a mosaic. What is it about a stone, smoothed by waves? Where does the urge to pick it up come from? I think it has to do with possession. We all want to own the beach somehow. There is a lesson to be learned here. Pebbles glisten, wet, in the sun. Once home, they lose their appeal, no longer part of nature. We are all part of nature. We live, we die. We leave the environment behind for future generations. How criminal to leave it in such a sorry state! What a pity our leaders do not take the time to walk Le Count Hollow Beach and meditate on life. They would quickly switch priorities!