Approaching Tide

It is the end of another August low tide in Lubec, Maine. The men have been clam digging around the Spark Plug lighthouse that marks the center of the dangerous salt water channel that has been known to take lives and engulf unsuspecting tourists whom foolhardily drive out on the mudflats. The encroaching sea pours in from the cold-waters of the Bay of Fundy. It drives the clam diggers from the mud flats before their vehicles are engulfed by the rapidly-rising waters. With a hundred pounds or more of soft-shell clams dug from the mud-flats, these hard-working men and women will cash in their harvest for another day’s work. Many will return by nightfall with headlamps blazing to dig another batch for a double-payday.

This is life in Downeast Lubec, Maine

As Adam (43)

“The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind, nor (that of) sandal-wood, or of Tagara and Mallikâ flowers; but the odour of good people travels even against the wind; a good man pervades every place.” – Dhammappada

As Adam (38)

“And beheld before him every creature, as one sees images upon a mirror; all creatures born and born again to die, noble and mean, the poor and rich, reaping the fruit of right or evil doing, and sharing happiness or misery in consequence.” – The Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King: A Life of Buddha

Night-Crown Heron at Dusk

“It has looked out from its dull eye for so long, standing on one leg, on moon and stars sparkling through silence and dark, and now what a rich experience is its! What says it of stagnant pools, and reeds, and damp night fogs? It would be worth while to look in the eye which has been open and seeing at such hours and in such solitudes. When I behold that dull yellowish green, I wonder if my own soul is not a bright invisible green. I would fain lay my eye side by side with its and learn of it.” – Thoreau