Wild Campion - google photograph
Today is summer, almost august
But no one feels that way
Summer is happening in secret
Beneath human awareness
The garden needs no water this year
It loves to care for itself
Creating surprises of color
Where they are least expected
Hues we have never seen before
This seems to please the bees
Oregano and Lavender flowers
Abuzz with bees’ yellow faces
Side pockets full of pollen
As hummingbirds visit wild Campion
Then flatten the leaves of Red Maple
With their fast fluttering flight
I left the Garden to its own busy world
And walked toward the Rocky Shore
That forever overlooks the ocean
My intention was just to notice it
I really didn’t want anything more
Walking through the forest toward the beach
I was washed by the rich salty smell
Of a glimmering intertidal band
The smell told me the sea was near
Even before I reached it – its the same smell
That tells sailors 'land is ahoy'
The ocean’s rolling breath
Was pushed through the trees
By a summer warm breeze
From a place overlooking the shore
I noticed the infinite beauty of waves
Bringing messages from an eternal source
Across the sea – no matter how far
And never noticing the sunlight
That spilled sparkles all over its back
Everything was moving in the silent breeze
Wildflowers were waving within the world
The longest stems and largest flowers
Swayed the furthest and moved the slowest
Shorter grasses moved much faster and
Seized at any direction that was uncluttered
Cliff stone carried moss and short grass
In the lines and patches across its back
Proving the sun still held the secrets
Of up and of down - deep in its burning wisdom
Some rocks had fallen or pulled away from their cliffs
Places they had embraced since the sea first retreated
I don’t think separation was ever felt between them
It is just happens to rocks – eventually they weather
But the separation spoke clearly of constant change
Inevitable change that happens forever
In every moment change is gradual and rapid
Change may find us in a place we don’t like at first
Or it may indifferently take a place we deeply loved away
The silent, bleached and branch-less wood on the beach
Reminded me that every human was like the drifted wood
A storied past that brought them right to where they stand
A story that is, for sticks or flesh, unique and precious and real
My attention was drawn back to the sea
Boats and boats and boats passed by
Appearing and then disappearing
From and to the high mysteries of rock
That stood protecting the inlet where I sat
Texada Island is always there sleeping slowly
A wide and shadowy-blue but earthy separation
Between the sky and the silver sparkled sea
Seams with sky and sea were different
But perfect and without voids to fill
The bottom of the island seemed to float
Sucked flawless and tight to a curved horizon of sea
The jagged top of the island was easy
For the sky to find through the forest
And it seemed to naturally know
Every smooth and jagged piece of it
Big boats, little boats, fast boats, slow boats
Quiet boats, noisy boats, fishing boats, row boats
Pleasure boats tug boats, ski boats and tow boats
Sailboats under sail and sailboats under power
All of them tried to cut the sea in two
Between the distant island and where I sat
Each boat was unique, each boat was beautiful
But none could cleave the landscape in two
The harbour seal out there never even tried
She bobbed far-off in waves to find her breath
Then spend it on the drama of another fishing dive
Some boats sent the wakes of their effort
All the way to the shore near where I sat
Where their waves broke with empty protest
Falling flat to their bellies exhausted by beach
And so much tripping along the rocky shore
Sailboats were the quietest and the neatest to watch
They held their wakes in - but the sea mended herself
Tight and easy – right under their stern
The place where I sat was old black rock
And surrounded by green moss and white lichen
Red arbutus and light green maples stood by
I rested in the waving shade of shore pines
That place is surely full of life and complete
Every day that ever happens - with or without me
Being so open to this place left me feeling sad
It pulled at me when I turned to leave
A longing ember of loss and sadness glowed
Grief washed in like a wave over my heart
The wave came from someplace I know but can’t remember
And something whispered through the grief to me
“On the other side of that pain is light” and
"In the light of that moment is a knowing that will last forever"
A knowing that parts of everything are dieing
A knowing that parts of everything are being born
At the same time and in every single moment that is
As with any visit of grief we can know that we loved deeply
And grief, like the rock, will eventually break away
But Love is always, like the wind and the waves,
Forever seeking us from its eternal place
Middle Bay (flickr.com image)
