Lessons from the Tide

As we get out of the truck the mist hits us directly in our face. It’s 48 degrees, foggy with a heavy mist.

I pull the hood of my rain jacket up and point my face to the ground as we make our way over the high rock berm and onto the beach.

We are at Jasper beach, a beach in Machiasport Maine. 

 The beach is made up entirely of polished red hued Jasper stones. 

A beach like nothing I had seen before.

As the tide goes in and out the stones roll against each other and create an almost singing sound. 

It really is something to hear.

As I mentioned before it’s a very cool and foggy day, so we have the entire beach to ourselves.

We waste no time and start walking and looking down at the magnificent stones that make up Jasper beach. 

As we walk further down the beach my eyes catch something in the fog that I can't make out.

It seems to be a row of something sticking out of the stones off in the distance. 

As we get closer it becomes clear that what we see is all that remains of what was once a pier or a structure of some kind.

They only stick out of the stones a foot or two as the rest has long been taken by time.

As we stand there looking at what remains, we talk about what could it be? A pier for what? There is no town here. No long-ago settlement existed close by.  

No railroad or road to connect to that ran close to the beach. 

 So what could it have been and how long ago was it built?

It doesn’t even go all the way to the shoreline.  

 It stops way before the high tide mark. 

Very strange indeed.

All that remains is a whisper from the past of a story we may never know but enjoyed thinking about.

After a few minutes we moved further down the beach towards what looked like caves in the cliff walls.

The caves were so interesting.

 It cost me wet feet to get to them as I crossed a small stream that drained a backwater marsh, but it was more than worth it. 

There were four caves. 

One, you could go in one side and out the other and 3 that went into the cliff. The deepest was close to 25 feet into the cliff wall.

Had anyone ever used it to escape the weather or a storm? Was it ever used for shelter? 

I don’t know but my imagination ran wild and there were countless stories of what could have happened there over the hundreds to thousands of years those caves have existed.

Stories that no one will ever know for sure but fun to think about.

After exploring the caves while Lisa watched from the dry side of the stream, I crossed again, ensuring a complete soaking of my feet before we headed back to the truck in the mist. 

As we slowly walked along the beach, Lisa stopped and turned around and took this picture of our footprints on the beach. 

This picture in so many ways reflects our journey through life.

Although we make tracks as we walk along in life. Like the tide that cleared the track we left on the beach that day. 

Time will do the same with our tracks in life.  

Regardless of the length of your life’s journey, time, like the tide will eventually erase your tracks and all that will be left is the memory of what was, 

in those who knew.

I guess the lesson to learn from the tide,

is that your tracks will never last and you too will fade into a memory! 

Make sure you are enjoying the walk.