Shifting Beach

I was thinking of naming this posting “Shifting Sands” but the way the beach appeared today was more along the lines of the whole beach shifting, not just the sand. Although I must say there was a great deal more sand than I have ever seen.

Low tide was at a good time today for a nice walk on the beach. It was at 11:41 am so the sun was high in the sky which helped it to be a little bit warm. Except for the wind. Wicked cold wind blowing out to sea. I was fine when I was walking parallel to the ocean or when I stood facing the ocean. But when I turned to walk back to my vehicle, the wind hit me full force in the face and I was freezing! I zipped up the “fur” collar on my vest and buried my face down into it to try to keep warm. It sort of helped but not enough. I had to walk much faster than I had been to get back before I developed frost bite. Not sure if I would have but why take the chance?

Back to the shifting beach…as I said, the level of sand is much higher than I have ever seen it. Despite the fact that Maine has almost 3,500 miles of coastline, not much of it is sandy beaches. (Maine’s coast is 250 miles as the crow flies but it is a zig zagged coast that stretches thousands of miles).  Most of it is rocks or rock covered beaches. But in southern Maine, where I live, there are a number of beaches that have miles of sand. Not soft white sand like in some areas of the world. Not thick, deep sand such as at the Great Lakes. But hard, darker sand that is wet and firmly packed from the tides beating at it.

The beach that I like to walk has large sections that are covered with large rocks and boulders. These rocks and boulders shift position as the tide moves in and out. Actually I have been at this beach during huge storms and stood on the lookout above the sea wall and heard large boulders being slammed into the sea wall by the ocean. It makes boulders that are at least four or five feet around sound like tumbling dice as they are tossed and turned in the waves. Amazing sound!

When I was at the beach today, the smaller rocks that had been impeding my walking a few weeks ago were now covered by a thick layer of wet sand. So think that the deep step from the stairs to the beach (deep as in 10 to 12 inches high – depending on the level of the sand) was gone and the sand was level with the bottom step.

Not only was the sand thicker but it was arranged by the ocean in such a way that there were a number of sand bars sticking up with the ocean moving around them. Since it was low tide, the part of the ocean near the land was only about four inches deep at parts. Deeper in other parts but not so deep that I couldn’t walk through it to go on to the sand bars.

As I stood on one of those sand bars, surrounded on all sides by the ocean, I marveled at the power and majesty of the water. As much as we try to control nature and make the earth behave as we want to best suite our needs, we really have no control of something as powerful as the ocean. It will work and re-work the coastline as it sees fit. It adds rocks and then takes them away. Piles the sand up on some spots, removes it in others or removes it all together based on its whims. We can try to stop it by building sea walls or building up sand dunes. But it has a mind of its own and it will go where it wants to go. The people in New Jersey who were devastated by Hurricane Sandy are well aware of this fact.

I truly believe that we need to respect the ocean and its boundaries. It has been here long before we were and will be here long after. It is strong and powerful and needs to be respected.

If you want to live near the ocean, then respect it by acknowledging its strength. If you must try to stop it from infringing on what we claim to be our land, then build a sea wall or dike that is big enough and thick enough to actually stop the ocean. Don’t build a house on the sand with nothing but a sand dune in front of you and expect the ocean to leave you alone. It will just ignore your wimpish attempts to control it and pour into whatever space it pleases.

Besides which, it says in the Bible that it is foolish to build a house on shifting sands. For this very reason. The ocean will change those sands and thus your house.

I respect the ocean. I don’t try to walk the beach when the tide is coming in or when it is particularly rough. I step back from the sea wall when the ocean is licking at the top and sometimes pouring over it unlike the people I see who stand as close to the edge as possible and then don’t like it when they get wet. Not to mention, if the waves are strong enough, they could get swept out to sea.

I pick my times to walk next to the ocean, as I did today.  And, as I stood there and marveled at how it had changed since just a few days earlier, I thanked God at the wonder of his creation and the power of his ocean. What a glorious and wonderful site to behold!