Merlin's Beard

It is a quiet day today – and tonite will be my last night on-call for our hotline. Sunrise brings freedom. Yay! I do have to drive up to Machias to do an info-booth at a fair (the international blueberry festival, or some such). Then I get Monday off. Yay!
Here are a couple of pics from the Deer Isle area. I go there to fill my spiritual tank sometimes. Also to get in the mood for some writing. Especially when I am writing about an island setting, it is great. Yet I even find the creative juices juicier on this particular beach if I am writing about vampires or eating disordered teens. Not relevant, but juicy. Although I suppose an eating disordered teen could be found puking just beyond the tree line – with a vampire waiting to eat her when she’s done. Hmmm. Nah.
The tree trunk that looks like a sea monster in this shot is an old guy I call Merlin. I have known this oak tree since he was in the ground. I used to sit on a boulder and lean on him. He always had an especially extroverted, loving energy.
What am I talking about, you ask? Here’s my theory. Most trees keep to themselves. They have a life-force that is so different than the human one, we usually can’t pick up on it and relate to it without altering our own state through spiritual perspective and imagination (and probably meditation). But this guy meets us halfway (or more than half, considering how dense humans are).
When he fell, I cried. I can still sit on his trunk from time to time. I took a lot of pictures. I’m in a race with the tide. Merlin is a very loving tree. He is very, very cool. He’s okay with being down and starting to decay. He’s partly there – but he’s fine with being gone. I’m the one who has trouble with it as I watch him break up and float away.
I carried pieces of him home. I asked. He said it was okay. I have a granite stone that was caught in his root-ball. I planted that under an apple seedling in my backyard. It doesn’t feel quite right, though. I think I will have to take it up and go find an oak.
I also have a piece of his trunk. It contains a very anthropomorphic face. I’ll try to take a pic of it, but I’m not sure it will translate.
That’s about it. I’m looking forward to a quiet day. PS: I’m okay with my haircut now. I know you are relieved.