Was it when the kids were quizzed by the biologist ecotour guide and got the questions right? (Yes I know the moon controls the tides.) Was it when my mom saw our life on our turf and got it, realized the fullness of what we were experiencing as a family? Was it when Townes described his ideal adult life and he said he’d have four kids and protect the environment along the eastern seaboard by making it illegal to poach endangered species while living in his RV (he said ‘bus’ to ensure we knew he was talking about something different, his own idea)? Or was it seeing the kids patiently watch the moving water, collecting shells, building a fort, finding a snake, designing in the sand, and recognizing all they had learned, done, experienced through a multitude of these micro-movements? Or was it just being present for another tide in and another tide out?

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We are a marsh, anticipating tides, low and high. Nurseries, protecting the young and vulnerable, giving them a place to thrive. Grass that knows how to extract the otherwise toxic salt. Our top layer is brown, weathered, but our interior is green and lush and fed and nourished. We’ve made our decomposition good, our mud our nutrition, our decay our life.