Catch the trade winds in your sails

Adieu, Cape Cod!  It was fun getting to know you.  Since I'd love to visit Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard (the name has always appealed to me) I hope to be back someday but until then I'll keep your beauty in my mind to pull out and savor on gray days.

"A man may stand there and put all America behind him." 

Henry David Thoreau, from his journal  about Cape Cod, 1857

"They Also Faced The Sea" 

 The installation of larger-than-life black and white photographs of Provincetown women of Portuguese descent, mounted on a building at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf in Provincetown Harbor, is conceived as a tribute to the Portuguese community and its fishing heritage.

The autumn wind is a pirate. Blustering in from sea with a rollicking song he sweeps along swaggering boisterously. His face is weather beaten, he wears a hooded sash with a silver hat about his head... The autumn wind is a Raider, pillaging just for fun.

Steve Sabol (American filmaker and artist)

As we stood at the end of the pier, this quote by Mark Twain came to mind.  Students many years ago gave my husband an engraved print of this saying and it has hung in his office ever since.  We love it so much that a few years ago we even put it on our living room wall.  We feel it defines who we are...two adventurers on this sea of life who are willing to dream and discover what life holds for us.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.  So throw off your bowlines.  Sail away from safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore, Dream, Discover.

As we were getting ready to leave, this old boat caught my eye.  I love its sturdiness--you somehow instinctively know that it has served its Captain well.

The Sentinel

As if he were a statuette, 

The meerkat struck a pose, 

Without a frown, without a fret, 

Serene with upturned nose...

He was like some superhero, 

Cape blowing in the breeze, 

While he stood firm, looked high and low, 

With no thought to appease...

The meerkat was the Sentinel -

The first to raise alarm, 

Called on to be reliable, 

So others could stay calm...

He was the Captain in control, 

The General standing guard, 

The Brigadier whose heart and soul

Kept vigil long and hard.

The Sentinel's experience

Helped others take their ease

And through maintained resilience, 

He stood steadfast for peace.

One meerkat can make the difference! 

A hero through and through...

If he can take a noble stance, 

Then why on Earth can't you?! 

by Denis Martindale