Eclectic, quirky, and sometimes edgy…this is how things look from my front porch.




Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Water Water Everywhere

Karen Blixen, whose pen name was Isak Dineson, wrote Out of Africa.    She said, " The cure for anything is salt water, either sweat or tears or the sea."  Roger that. 

My earliest happy memories are surrounded by the water of Long Island Sound at Black Point or at the Atlantic ocean near the great auntie's cottages (Mercedes, Florence, and Peg) on Long Beach Island, NJ. 

Whenever I smell the scent of brine, I am 7 again with a sunburned nose.   I hear Taffy padding on dog feet across the kitchen floor, and see Kit's old wringer washer in the out building.  We used the roller to squidge the water from our bathing suits and hung them on the clothesline strung above the picnic table to dry completely. 

So it is no accident that I still live surrounded by water in Hampton Roads, Virginia...either the brackish Elizabeth River (which is actually a tidal estuary like the Hudson near New York City) or the Atlantic Ocean or the Chesapeake Bay at Fort Monroe.

My neighborhood is a peninsula surrounded by water which teems with life; fish, crabs, green herons, and this egret above foraging for lunch.
During my most troubled times, I am drawn towards contemplation along the water.  I am always renewed by it.  We are first created within water.  I think we want to return to it over and over. 

The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.     Psalm 29:2-4

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Annie,
Thanks for your musings. The second photo is almost the view out my window. Thinking about y'all at 256 and hoping that you don't have to be in the desert for too much longer.

S.

Judy said...

For me it's a 30 minute drive to Lake Michigan. Sometimes I just need to see, feel, smell, hear, (not taste - bleeech)that it is still there.
And it always is.