Here we go again. Daybreak walk at Cove Island Park. 760 consecutive (almost) days. Like in a row.
The narrator @ Audible is pumping “Independent People” into my head, a novel that won the 1955 Nobel Prize for Halldór Laxness. Not sure what’s up with my fixation on Iceland and Icelanders: Laxness, Ólafur Arnalds, Of Monsters and Men. Something going on here… Something.
So, I’m walking, and listening to Laxness…
“Had the brook lost its charm, then? No, far from it. Clear and joyful it flowed over the shining sand and pebbles, between its banks white with withered grass, its joy eternally new every spring for a thousand years; and it told little stories, in its own little tongue, its own little inflections, while the boy sat on the bank and listened for a thousand years. The boy and eternity, two friends, the sky cloudless and unending.”
Thousand years the brook flowed. Thousand years, the tide I’m staring out at, receded, and then rolled back in again. Thousand years of nights, twilights, and sunrises…
Laxness continues: “Nothing in life is so beautiful as the night before what is yet to be, the night and its dew.”
I walk.
It’s 5:01 a.m., twilight (aka near dark), and I notice the tracks. Tracks running from the shoreline to the top of beach. WTH is that? I walk to the top, wary of what I’ll find; God knows, it could be a badger from New Hampshire that lost its way — hiding behind the bushes waiting for its next victim.
I reach the top, nothing there. Disappointing.
I follow the tracks down the beach.
And there he is.
A Horseshoe Crab.
I look around, and Horseshoe Crabs line the shoreline. It’s The Invasion of the Horseshoe Crabs.
Air bubbles rise from the shallow water, horseshoe crabs huddling together.
They are said to have been around for 450,000,000 years.
450,000,000 years. Think about that. 450,000,000 years of dragging a** up beaches.
And then there’s my 760 days. Like in a Row.
How small I am.
How short life is.
How beautiful this moment.
Photos: DK @ Cove Island Park. June 4, 2022. 5:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. More photos from this morning’s walk here.
Live & Learn 
thank you. i really needed this reminder of how small i am and this moment this morning. thanks for a bit of grace.
may you have some measure of peace today.
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Thank you!
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A great piece to follow my 73rd birthday…like in a row. It is a wonder and a blessing. Glad to be walking with you. Thanks, David.
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Thank you Mary Ann. Happy Belated Birthday!
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A perfect reminder of this great Earth’s beauty and our little spot in it…🥰
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Beautifully stated Lori. Thank you.
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You’ve got a long way to go to match this crab’s record. Keep on walking. Only 449,999,998 years to go.
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Laughing. Exactly!
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You can do it!
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Laughing. I’m on my way.
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You inspire me, David.
Thank you.
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Awwww. Thank you Dale.
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I mean it. I’ve read so many books I’d never have heard of and I love how you share bits of you through your walks.
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Thank you Dale.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Simply beyond amazing! … “It’s 5:01 a.m., twilight (aka near dark), and I notice the tracks. Tracks running from the shoreline to the top of beach. WTH is that? I walk to the top, wary of what I’ll find; God knows, it could be a badger from New Hampshire that lost its way – hiding behind the bushes waiting for its next victim.”
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(I thank God for our being small and accepting it; Ozymandias has regrets.) Why has there not been a rock band named “Ass-Draggin’ Crab Tracks”? (“ADCT”)! I love the tracks shot, love the one of the crabs huddling, and I over-love the flying in or sitting under the sky’s blues and salmons in your other shots this morn. Wow!
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Aieeee. So love this comment. ADCT is close to my fav rock Band AC/DC. Love it.
Never heard of Ozymandias. Looked it up. Amazing. Thank you!
Ozymandias
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1818)
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
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Someone posted the poem sometime between 2016 and 2020, thus passing along the consolation Shelley knew it always would be, somewhere.
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1818. Amazing.
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Well I’m sure you will be walking and posting about your 1000th day on the circuit. 👏👏And it’s true, we are small and tiny compared, but like the horseshoe crab, our choices, our small part, create a huge impact in this ancient world. 🤗
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Oh, don’t we ever…
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Hi David
I’ve been trying to like your posts all day but, every time I press the like button, I’m bumped to Facebook, which I don’t use. Any idea why this is?
The post about the Horseshoe crabs is beautifully written. I loved it.
Claire
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Hi Claire. Thank you so much. Sometimes I’ve heard that if you log off and log in again it resets and rights itself. Not sure.
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Thank you David. I shall try it.
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you and the crab are in a race like the tortoise and the hare
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Laughing. I think he’s winning.
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How fast the time goes…how quickly each moment vanishes without even appearing fazed by its speed. Your days capture the beauty, your words underscore the humility in each shot.
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So true Mimi. Thank you.
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Another great reminder that , long after we (and our cluster of fussy things to worry about) are long gone, they’ll remain. Prehistoric and Post-historic creatures!! ~ MJ
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So true MJ. Long long gone.
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Perspective is always in season. 👁
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That it is….
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Just a note – The Nobel Prize in Literature is for an author’s body of work, not just a particular title. Laxness has numerous novels that are thought of highly.
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Thanks for correction Stephen. I loved Independent People and I’m checking into his other novels.
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