THE QUAHOG REPUBLIC VIBE

Written 8/4/09

Across the channel, nestled among the trees, are big old summer houses.  They stretch as far as I can see from my view here at the Quahog Republic. Sandy beaches line the shores on that side and this. The sun is bright, the sky baby blue and a whitish haze hovers above the tree line in the distance.  Sand chairs of many colors have their backs to me on the beach below.  The grownups’ heads are covered with hats and children play in the sand.  Moored boats bob lazily in water so calm.  Time slows down here on Mashnee Island.

I’m on Cape Cod but I could be in the Caribbean.  The breeze blows gently through the open window.  Jimmy Buffett’s music serenades.  A small skiff with a sail of blue glides slowly by as one with a motor speeds to shore.  The people on the beach didn’t come by car.  They arrived by boat with their gear in tow.  Things move very slowly as I see outside.  And here in my chair I catch the vibe.  A glass of wine, a pen in my hand and I relax inside.

A wooden raft 30 feet out brings me back to when I was a kid.  Jumping off, then climbing back up, rocking with the water as I lay down on those hard boards. Somehow, they didn’t seem hard then. The kids out there now are doing the same.  Some things are timeless.  

Free, with time standing still, it surrounds us all here on Mashnee Island.  New kayakers go back and forth.  Community boating is alive and well as small sails fill the channel and add to the color.  Gulls are overhead.  One catches my eye as he glides and swoops. I think he could be Jonathan Livingston Seagull.  Just like velvet, he coasts.  I’m mesmerized as I watch his journey and I can only imagine his view from above.

 There is so much activity in this lazy scene when I take the time to see.  Yet a peace abounds and infiltrates the air, erasing life’s stresses as it takes me away.  A gray haired guy stands below.  Oars in his hand, a life jacket thrown over his shoulder, he waits for someone while he sings and dances in place to ‘Rocking in the Free World’.  Reggae plays now as I feel the breeze and move my shoulders to the rhythm,   I found a gem today, for I will come back to my new island habitat.

SEA AND SEE

SEA AND SEE

Written 7/14/09 

Comfortable in my chair on Woods Hole Beach, my pen poised to capture the magnificence surrounding me, I watch a bird; large, dark and sleek as he glides just above the water, then lands on the surface and disappears below.  In his wake, is a vast expanse of ocean, waves breaking loudly with scent and color. The sky, a clear cerulean, meets the sea, in stark contrast to water colored blue black with crystalline splashes of white.  Yet twenty feet from shore, the color changes to celery green darkened with the brown of sea weeds that rise to the top of each breaking wave. They sway with the rhythm of the water that teases them in, and then snaps them back, as if dancing a tango.  In the distance beyond, a ferry, brim full of vacationers, swiftly follows the channel toward the Vineyard as it passes a tug with barge in tow, laboring into port.

When I chose my spot to write this morning, I wasn’t quite sure that I’d be inspired by the sleepy looking beach scene before me; a few sun bathers, a swimmer or two, distant boats on the horizon and gulls overhead.  I’m thrilled though, to find a much larger spectacle of motion, color and sound in an ever changing array. As I look up now, a Coast Guard Cutter is quickly heading inland, appearing intent on a mission as it disappears behind the big house high up on a cliff.  I wonder for a brief second where my attention will fall next until I notice an infantry of puffy white clouds lazily marching in formation out to sea.  I am awed with this gallery of images before me, feeling such joy and serenity and deliciously content with my hour of writing ‘words of nature’. My eyes have opened and my heart is full.