Relax, Go, Do

On this day, for many years I would grab a camera and take off. I would drive and look and think. If I saw something of interest I would stop and set up a tripod and take some artsy shots of whatever was happening in front of me as I moved though space and time on December 25th. It was mostly a cathartic way for me to turn the page from one year and open another to another.

Looking back, one of the most vivid memories was of a trip around the Olympic Peninsula, up through Port Angeles, past the now famous vampire town of Forks and all the way down the wild Washington coast. And I do mean wild. This stretch is nothing like its southern counterparts in Oregon or California. There are few tourist traps, no In & Out Burgers and maybe a handful of places actually passable. It is raw. It is wild. Nature is the boss with nary a lifeguard stand or yacht at anchor. Waves pound the rocky shore relentlessly with a salty hiss. Winds blow cold thermals in which gulls hang midair. Shells, driftwood and beach glass look to have been there since the first coastal tribes hunted whales from cedar canoes. It smells like earth, home. I want to build a fire and sit behind it and watch the horizon for signs of hope. I wonder if there is a message in the cloud formations, something important that the Great Spirit of the Sky and Sea is trying to share with me. I want to be shamanistic and interrupt these messages in order to get closer to one. The shrill laughter of a seal, black with neoprene, says that he is there for this too. Just be yourself. I am struck with a blast of freezing air, a slap on the face, unmistakably delivered as a wake up call. A gull screams in accord. Orange and saffron clouds outline the sinking sun whose shimmering rays dance on the frigid blue-gray water like a million frantic smelt. My mouth is dry. From behind, atop a great gnarled coastal pine, a peregrine falcon is watching this scene unfold. I am in her field of vision, along with the gulls, the seal, the sun and the surf. She sees me as a part of all. I hear her counsel, 'you cannot be anything other than a part of the whole'. 'Relax, go, do'.

I get up to go.

Will do.