The Driftwood

A few weeks back, Blackswamp Girl asked about the piece of driftwood that sits by my garden gate. It has a story. Nearly 15 years ago I went to the beach on my birthday. THAT should be birthday present enough for one day. But this was a special birthday. It was the first year we had built the house and my birthday fell on the day of the full moon. When my husband asked my what I wanted for my birthday I said, "to watch the full moon rise from the back deck of our new house."

And so it was that our friends Ed and Wynell came armed with what can only be called a "Full Moon Liturgy." We read readings, Ed played a flute he had made from PVC pipe, and Wynell taught us a dance and a song that we did in the moonlight.

Go to Joan Glover
and tell her I love her
And by the light of the moon
I will come to her

But I digress. So it was on this special birthday that I got up from my beach chair and announced "I am going to see if the beach has a present for me." I was not a quarter mile down the beach, when there it was ... this enormous piece of driftwood. I started tugging it through the sand ... then I turn ot over and over on itself. Exhausted, I abandoned it. But Ed, bless his heart, hoisted that piece of driftwood on his shoulders and carried it down the beach and back to the car. For many years, before we had foundation plantings, it sat in the front of the house. It came to its current resting place outside the garden fence about three years ago.