Delight

“Every object, every being, is a jar full of delight”.

- Rumi

More than twenty years ago I decided to gather all loose snapshots I had taken and bring some semblance of order to them. In short order I found myself surrounded by hundreds of pictures, eventually overflowing the dining room table, into piles around my feet. For several days I immersed myself in setting memories into chronological order, each album telling a story of our family life, places travelled, special events, and loved faces.

On a visit to the Queen Charlotte Islands one summer we spent several days in the North Beach area of Graham Island, an island steeped in history, culture and art. We were interested in all of these things but found ourselves drawn to the oceanside, the windswept beach and the pounding surf near what is known to the locals as Tow Hill-a 400 foot perpendicular cliff of columnar basalt. As well we were hoping to find the Blow Hole, a natural channel in the basalt, where when tide and waves cooperate, salt water shoots upward with impressive force and sound. 

Our first day we clambered about the black, pocked rocks below Tow Hill. The sea was calm, the sky grey with a light mist falling. The next day with the sun shining and a stiff wind blowing we again found ourselves at the foot of the hill exploring tide pools to which clung orange and maroon starfish. So engrossed were we in this exploration at our feet, the first spray of water through the blowhole caught us by surprise! There was no mistaking it’s location now!

With the rising tide and strong winds, the sea began to cascade and crash through the opening in the rock with huge heaves of sound. Steel blue salty seawater turned white and foamy, spraying in huge arcs before us, carried off by the wind, creating a rhythmic sequence of sound and spray. Sometimes the force of it lifted large chunks of bull kelp and small globs of clear jellyfish high into the air. We were mesmerized and entranced. There were loud shouts from the children, broad smiles and laughing; each spray a spectacular exclamation of nature’s beauty and delight!