Friday, July 11, 2025

Beachside reflection

The things we see
Port Stanley, ON
July 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I can’t help it: beaches make me reflective.

There doesn’t seem to be much point to sitting on sand, but no one ever said everything needed a point to begin with. Perhaps the fact that there IS no point is, indeed, the point.

Countless lives all intersect in this rather chaotic place where water meets land, each one making some kind of core memory to carry back with them after the sun finally begins to set.

I’ll often stand in one spot, close my eyes and just listen to the wind and the waves and the birds and the distant and not-so-distant sounds of strangers enjoying their time here. Or I’ll open my eyes and take in the spectacle of folks disconnecting from the outside world.

Because this kind of is its own world, separate and distinct from wherever else we might live or work. It’s a place that lets us put our outside lives on hold for a bit while we soak in an admittedly wild environment that mercifully hasn’t been paved over in the name of so-called progress.

Comparing old photos to new photos always makes me smile, because not much ever really changes here. Which is as it should be.

Sometimes I’ll stand in the shadows of this beloved beachside restaurant that’s been around for over a century and wonder how many others have stopped here for similar moments of reflection. I wonder if they, too, have ever stood beside the glass and wondered about the moments on the outside that it has reflected, as well as those on the inside that it has made transparent.

For glass can do either, as it tells stories both directly and indirectly, for those willing to stand here and look.

#portstanley #beach #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #mackies #glass #geometry #reflective #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:
A Mackie's moment, March 2021

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)