Beach Treasures,Reprise
a meditation on impact
My Dear Reader,
What happens when ocean meets land?
When there is high wind and heavy rain, destruction.
When calm, remnants remain after the tide - -
glass, rubber and plastic among broken shells, seaweed and bits of wood.1
What happens when we show up for the all of it…
…and collect not the shells, sea glass or worn pebbles, but those other treasures instead - - the ones that don’t belong?2
I experiment with framing and time of day, trying to process the simultaneous grief for all that stuff and gratitude for the textures, colors and shapes that appear.
Who knew that a single tide would present such diversity?
And after a week, there’s sculpture.
Who knew that picking up this and that twice a day for seven days could remove so much garbage from the sea?
It seems ironic that I feel so connected with the earth when handling garbage - - perhaps it’s because most of the ingredients for each of these objects originally came from the land…If they can’t decompose, as least these tiny bits can be cared for.
While overwhelmed by Helene and Milton’s dual destruction, I remember that showing up and taking care of that which is right in front of us matters.
13 tons of love, one day at a time.
Thank you for being here and sharing your time and this space with me.
With gratitude for you being you,
Lyn
I’ve just finished reading Edward Humes’ Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World. While filled with oodles of daunting statistics, Total Garbage also offers narratives of real people finding real solutions. It’s uplifting and extremely practical. Though I’ve heard it all before about plastic, I hadn’t thought about other areas of our consumption in the same context - - and how simple it can be to use less. All this beach garbage is certainly a drop in the bucket, but as my seven day quest demonstrates, it adds up!
Here’s the link to the original Beach Treasures…a longer piece about my experiences here in Maine back in August, but along a similar thread.