Fear

When someone tries to hit me
I fight back
I didn’t worry much in clinic
even when patients yelled
it indicated they were upset
and usually I knew why

Not much fear there.

So what do I fear?

Abandonment
and lies
the one who says they care
that we will be friends
even that they love me
and later walk away

But that has already happened
more than once
and I survive
and the Beloved is still here
and there
and everywhere I am
and everywhere you are
and everything is connected
so there is no fear
and even a chance
that abandoned
I still thrive

____________________

The photograph is from Marrowstone Island in July 2022.

Littoral zone

I walked on Marrowstone Island yesterday, south from East Beach. There was a super low tide, to -3.38 at 1:07 pm. When the tide came in, it was at +8.76, so that is a huge difference.

There were almost no people, but the group enjoying the low tide were the great blue herons! I counted 14. At one point they all alerted, and a bald eagle came down and perched on the rock that a heron had been on. There must be some very delicious food for the herons with the low tide. The eagle seemed to be considering heron to be a delicacy.

Here is the eagle (and the great blue herons moved!)

I came home with one very lovely agate.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: littoral.

Foggy beach walk

Some days we have fog that burns of to beautiful sun. This is a Marrowstone Island beach walk that was foggy nearly until I got back.

The tide was very far out and the great blue herons were loving it.

The ships were being cautious. They were invisible and calling for most of the walk.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: foggy.

Lions

The sea lions that I wrote about look static in my still pictures from Marrowstone, here. I am zoomed all the way in with my Canon PowerShot SX40HS, and in bright sunlight hand held, I can’t really see much through the camera. I try to get it in focus and hold it still.

But yesterday I found a rock and tried to take a film, a movie! The sea lions are not static at all. The tide was going out, so the little island off the southern part of Marrowstone was rising from the waters. The sea lions are getting on the island as it appears. And perhaps not agreeing about position. It is amazing to watch how quickly the island changes.

Here is a sea lion film! I propped my camera on a rock, but got early wiggles turning the camera on and off, too. But there is a lot going on between the motion of the water, the sea lions, the sail boat and birds. Not to mention the small plane. I do not think the sea lions liked it.

I think I need to take a tripod and really set up. Next project!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: film.

Local lions

Our local lions are sea lions! I don’t think of sea lions as being good tempered, with the movies of them chasing prey. But out of the water in the sun off of Marrowstone Island, they seem pretty calm and I did not see displays of bad temper.

Sea lions can dive more deeply than seems reasonable because they slow their heart rates, to use less oxygen, and slow digestion. When they arrive back on the surface, they can get oxygen quickly but getting rid of the CO2 is slower. They have to sit around on the surface and the head back posture helps. I’ll bet they can beat any high school or college student in a burping contest. And as you can see, some of these are just huge. We wondered how they got on the rock. Do they have to at low tide or do they just jump?

I do like to hear them roar. Hooray for our local lions.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: temper.