The Sea, Oh, the Sea

November 11 2023 Day 11

Little Bean has always been drawn to water - all water really, creeks and puddles and ponds.

But in particular to the ocean. I’ve puzzled about this draw for a while and there’s a lot going on here. Her mother likes the big sky, so there’s that.

There’s bugs, and crabs. There’s rocks, shiney and full of snails. There’s fish. So many fish.

She is Team Thoreau, who said, “Life in us is like the water in a river.”

Conversely, I am Team Conrad, who said, “The sea has never been friendly to man.”

There’s just too much. It doesn’t call me like it does her. I prefer to be surrounded by wilderness that can kill me. All that openness is unsettling.

Still, we abide. She humors my mountains and leaf covered byways, and I follow when she leads me to her vernal pools. She will come home with birch bark in her pocket, and I with shells in mine.

So we’re teaching each other, which is fair. Meantime, we’ll sink our hands into the soil and wash our hands in the ocean. In due course, both will be ours.