Day #2008

July 1, 2019

In the midst of an article about Rachel Carson, a marine biologist who decades ago recognized the negative environmental impact of the pesticide DDT and fought for its elimination, I read this about a female visitor who had gone to the area where Carson did much of her research: “...one woman drops to her knees in the sand. ‘I could sit here the rest of my life,’ she says. ‘This is my favorite thing to do at the coast, just sit and take it all in. The way it smells. The way it feels. You look out at the water and it’s infinity.’” Then this: “‘To stand at the edge of the sea,’ Carson wrote, [...] is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.’” 

It made me stop and take a deep breath because those words could have easily been said by my friend Cindy, whose one year anniversary of death comes on Wednesday. In my mind’s eye, I can see her sitting on the sand, just watching and being at peace. It’s a beautiful memory (the above picture was taken in 2014 on one of our trips to the ocean in Georgia, in order that we could remember the feeling even when we were far inland).

My hope today is that she is now at a peace that far surpasses even the one she found sitting by the sea. Faith trusts that she is. 

Thank you for words that made me smile in the midst of a difficult week. 

Blessings.