Sunrise Constructions at the Cape Cod National Seashore

In the summer, I along with several friends journey to Wellfleet, Massachusetts for a two week sojourn to replenish our soul.  I am an early riser and usually leave the Victorian house on Commercial Street before the sun rises to go to one of the many beaches...Coastguard, Nauset or Marconi.

 I'm excited, a new day has dawn.

I watch as the sun gently rises in the East.

  I am excited...what will I find as I walk with my sister Fran today?

You see, for the past ten years, I have walked for miles along these sandy stretches of beach that slope around the tip of Cape Cod...shores that curve in and out of gulleys and inlets and sweep gracefully over the rolling sand dunes, topped by shimmering sheaves of marsh grass.  Here where sea, sand, wind and sky meet in harmony I have found the real Cape in all its primitive beauty.   

We start our walks down the beach with firm strides over the hard-packed sand at the shoreline.  As dawn turns to day we feel the sun beating hotly down on our heads, the pungent salt wind caressing our cheeks, and the cool spray and waters swirling around our ankles.  Across the beach runs a line of sand pipers, leaving behind them tiny stitches in the sand.  Here and there are remnants of an old boat, bleached white and dry by sand, salt and the sun; sea chewed planks, and treasures from ships that lie now still at the ocean's depths.  Piles of glistening sea weed, caught with shiny shells and pebbles,  still wet from their dark and eternally silent ocean bed, lie sprawled across the sands.

I stop to rest, as shore birds chase into the waves to devour strange sea vegetation and look at Fran, "So I wonder what sculpture we will make today?"  Not content to just walk, both Fran and I come to the sea to collect it's bounty, both from nature and man, and create something new out of the hodge-podge things we find as we walk.  Today we are fortunate...there's much on the beach...and soon a structure begins to take shape. 

We continue to work throughout the morning.... 

Gradually our structure begins to take form. 

We go further afield to find more treasures we can decorate our sea home with.....

By late afternoon, exhausted, we lay on the beach....some fellow beach travelers come by and look with amusement and amazement at what we have created.  The older man says, "It's a sculpture, you say?  You know it won't last...next tide, most of it will be washed out to sea...all your hard work for naught." 

I smile back, "Not for naught...this structure represents you and me...at some point, we too, will be washed out to sea...!" 

He smiles back and then gently says,  "Yes, I imagine you are right."

I know not what tomorrow will bring... what I do know is this:  Life, like this sculpture is fleeting at best, savor it, suck the marrow out of it...live!