May the Healing Begin....Now
On this inaugural day I am filled with hope for a new beginning. Current divisions in America run deep, but healing has to begin at some moment and hopefully today will prove to be the symbolic turning of tide.
I hope with all my heart that on this occasion we can all – no matter our respective passions – begin the long and difficult work of re-uniting as Americans. I hope that we will soon see the pandemic hell recede, but I even more wholeheartedly yearn for the scourge of anger and division that has so polarized and torn our country to begin ebbing.
Here’s the story I wrote some time back about The Beginning:
From where I sit in my studio right now, I can lean forward just a tad and see the mouth of our harbor which is crowned by The Perfect Small Island, which has The Perfect Lighthouse on its southern point.
There is SO much here, surrounding me in this village, along this side of the bay, in fact, along this whole coast, that makes the mid-coast as profoundly special as it is. I not infrequently pause, at the most random times and places, to quietly acknowledge to myself that we are seriously spoiled here.
Spoiled? Maybe. Blessed? Definitely.
In any event, Indian Island is a gem in every way and I cannot get enough of it. I can row out there in 20 minutes, yet it sits just far enough out from the head of the harbor where I sit this minute, to tantalize, to tease, to be a quiet but constant draw and siren.
No matter the season, it’s there, reminding me that I’m ashore and that it’s a gateway to all the salt-water of this world. A glimpse of it always makes me want to just….go.
On the day in 2005 when I made this photograph, I was over on the high western shore of the harbor just after dawn. It was virtually silent that morning, then I heard the faint drone of a boat coming out of the inner harbor.
I simply waited a few minutes, and that was that. Here’s the first boat out, at the beginning of another day’s hauling.
But more than that, it was the beginning of the day in which two good friends were to marry. It was the beginning of their marital passage through life. It all felt very special and this image became, of course, their belated wedding present.
And the bride is now a mother, and she helps me with design work, and her beautiful little daughter plays on the floor of my studio and I love it all and it all seems just perfect.
Because it is.
To purchase this work, click on the image
