This is "it". This is my most favorite place on the planet. This is where I want my ashes dispersed when I leave this earth.This is a "natural bridge" on the ocean side of Colorado Point, Aruba. I grew up hiking Colorado Point, sitting on a lava boulder looking out to the sea and down at the crashing waves around this rock formation we called the Natural Bridge. I don't think the structure has changed much in the 54 years of my life; if so the changes are subtle as the pounding waves and salt spray slowly erode the landscape.
There are countless photographs of this scene in my collection, taken through the years; even some very old black and white photographs (which are gorgeous in another way). If I sit very still and look at this photograph I start to hear (and feel) the wind and then I hear the waves. I can see moving water which is turquoise, the blue of ocean infused with turbulent movement bringing foam in the form of waves, waves that never cease. Right now as I sit in my unmade bed in Seattle, half a world away, this is the scene right now, rocks standing proud, greeting each wave with quiet surrender.
Sometimes this feels like the only permanence in life, this image, this glorious image. And yet, it too is changing. My eyes just can't see the changes and that's all for the best right now.
***photograph taken by Steve Fremgen and emailed to me today. He, like me, grew up in Aruba and is currently visiting the island. He knows, as I do, that this sacred place is a heaven on earth.
I didn't know you grew up in Aruba. Wow. I thought you were a Northwest girl!
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful to think of where one's final resting place might be. I think I'd like to be composted and turned into the soil beneath a rose bed.
This is a beautiful spot and your description makes me want to see it for myself.
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