A Month of Renewal ~ Part 2

The evening before, the marsh looked like this at high tide. 

The  morning tropical storm Hermine arrived, it looked like this at high tide, with water washing over the entire marsh.  I spent much of the day inside watching the rain and wind patterns on the water!  Fascinating! 

In the afternoon, we drove out to see the heavy surf.  On the south side of the Cape, the surf was pretty calm, so instead we drove to the north side of the Cape to Sandy Neck.  Here, the surf was wild where the winds of Hermine were beating down from the northeast.  

It really was impressive to see!  The last time I visited Cape Cod was February 2013 ~ just in time for superstorm Nemo!  Several of our group of friends had joined Di for a long weekend getaway ~ and what an adventure that was, to get snowed in during the blizzard and to be without power or heat for a few days!  We joked that with this trip, they just wanted to round out my experience a bit with a tropical storm!

I noted an interesting coincidence when looking back at my post about my last visit to Cape Cod, that it also was just prior to starting a new job!  

The day following storm Hermine, I spent the day exploring Cape Cod National Seashore on my own.  First stop was at the Salt Marsh Visitor Center.  Another book I had read and enjoyed was about this area of the marsh: The House on Nauset Marsh: A Cape Cod Memoir, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition by Wyman Richardson

While sitting on the bench outside the visitor center, I did this small watercolor sketch.  A canoe floated down the waterway while I was there so I had to add it in! 

From the visitor center, I drove up to the Coast Guard Station, and since it was the day AFTER Labor Day, I was able to park in the lot!  During the summer, you may only park there with a handicapped placard and if you want to visit the station, the beach or the trails, you must catch the shuttle bus.  I loved looking out over the marsh from this side and seeing all the birds in the air and on the water.  It seemed so much closer to what I'd read about in the Outermost House

Since I was able to park so close, I decided to walk down to the beach and see the surf that I could only glimpse from the top.  

Oh my!  For this landlubber, who has really only been to the seaside a handful of times this is what dreams are made of!  To see the green/blue water against a deep blue sky pouring over itself and sending foaming water streaming up the beach... words are not enough to tell you what it was to walk along this shore and experience the wind, the sand, the foamy water sloshing about my feet.  Like the prairie, the sea gives one perspective.  We are just a speck of sand in the larger scheme of things.  We get so caught up in our own troubles and the bubble of our own little world, that sometimes we forget that there is SO much more out there, that the world does not revolve around us.  It brings home to me what a precious gift it is that God, the creator of all this cares about 'little ol' me' despite the immensity of all the other things and all the other 'little ol' me's' out there.

For the Lord is a great God,

and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it;

for his hands formed the dry land.

Psalm 95:3-5 RSV

Who can stand at the seaside with this immensity and not feel the hand of God at work?  It fills my heart.  It rejuvenates.  At last, I can breathe again.  And know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that my troubles are small and that the God who can create this immensity and this exquisite beauty, who wants a relationship with me, (ME!) holds ALL things in the palm of his hand.

The Lord on high is mightier

Than the noise of many waters,

Than the mighty waves of the sea.

Psalm 93:4  NKJV

Just amazing.

For the earth will be filled 

with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2:14  RSV

On the shore, the waves leave tracks, the foam leaving behind a trail of bubble marks and a gull, tracks like ivy leaves.  The immensity of the sea, and these little tiny details.  All in God's hands.  

What a joy to have a few hours here to stand in the wet sand, to let the seas wash my feet and to experience that great immensity from the shore.  Truly a wonderful afternoon!

To be continued...