The Sandpiper

I watch him as he skims along,
Uttering his sweet and mournful cry.
He starts not at my fitful song,
Or flash of fluttering drapery.
He has no thought of any wrong;
He scans me with a fearless eye:
Staunch friends are we, well tried and strong,
The little sandpiper and I.

Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night
When the loosed storm breaks furiously?
My driftwood fire will burn so bright!
To what warm shelter canst thou fly?
I do not fear for thee, though wroth
The tempest rushes through the sky:
For are we not God's children both,
Thou, little sandpiper, and I?

                   (Poet Unknown)

 Standing archly on his tall, thin legs, lifting them one by one as he stiffly walks through the water and mud of the shoreline, the sandpiper addresses us with the shrill sceeep, screep of his song.  Long of body, often brown and gray with a proud spotted belly, his long legs and pointed beak allow him to find his meals virtually untouched in the watery world he calls home. 

It is said that when one is sad and walks along a beach the sandpiper’s song will bring you joy. 

It is said that he or she is a proud little bird, and others whisper that he sees below the surface of the water and plays with the waves as though in search of more than food.  

Although I lived in the Eastern United States for only a short period of my life, I sense the tides and the waves breaking on the normality of my life.  I sense an affinity with the magic of the ocean; in my dreams I often walk along a shoreline, seaching below the water’s surface for the hidden frankness and honesty of our natural world.  Why are we so blind?  What are we searching for?  Does the sandpiper sense a need for further knowledge, or is he content to wade in the shallows?

Yes, I am drawn to the sandpiper.  I love his ability to stand above the muck of the shoreline and still be able to adequately feed himself and live his chosen life.  I admire his fearless contemplation of breaking waves crashing onto his world.  I covet his dispassionate appraisal of life and his sense of purpose as he lifts his long legs and stubbornly moves them forward, ever forward.  Little sandpiper and I.