Footprints

Friday night at Lightfoot Bay....

Bob wanted to see the sunset on the beach so we walked down to the shore just before 8 o’clock. I went reluctantly; tired from the day’s activity, I would have preferred to read my book and go to bed early. But he was persistent that I come, so I put on my boots and joined him on the trail.

The beach was empty of life. As I’m not much of a landscape photographer, I set about looking at the dune grass and drift wood while Bob took pictures.  It wasn’t long when I came across tracks in the wet sand. Without my track book, I couldn’t readily identify who was the owner of each footprint. My original guess was a waterfowl of some sort, likely seagulls or ducks. The tracks circled around, back and forth like the bird or birds weren’t certain what direction to go.

I came across deer hoof prints, deep and distinctive.  By the distance between the tracks and the deepness of the print, I could assume that the deer was running along the shoreline. My imagination ran amok, picturing a graceful deer bounding across the sand enjoying the last remnants of summer.

We ignore the fact that we are not nature’s only inhabitant. We claim this tree or that ground or the water around us as ours. But wildlife has no concept of boundaries or ownership rights as we know it. For them all that matters is that the tree, the ground and the water fulfills its basic needs. They share their environment with other species, often in mutual cooperation, sometimes in competition.  In the world of nature survival is dependent upon the shared and prudent use of resources. Overconsumption of food and shelter will create an imbalance as one animal population increases to the detriment of another. In time, the overpopulated species cannot sustain its numbers and will eventually decline.

Too often we forget this fact when we try to claim more than what we need.  Whenever we hold on to something too tightly, it eventually slips out of our fingers and it is lost to the world. Perhaps a better method would be to let go of control and accumulate only what is needed. Then we too can frolic alongside the deer and the seagulls in the sunshine of life.