A 'Helmgrass' View on High Tide

This morning I crossed the Laguna-canal shortly after high tide. To my astonishment I did not need to wade and could even keep my shorts dry. At the sandbar it was still very quiet, so I took a dive right there in the undeep waters. There were barely waves. The sea being one rippling blue mirror, as you can see in the view from the dunes. After my delicious swim I stayed for a while, looking around, hesitating. Should I take my chances and go for a walk, while the weather was so beautiful…?

Then I saw a beachwalker heading for the end of the Peninsula, where he would have to cross the new breakthrough, now fully inundated. What would he do? He looked well trained, but why cross there at the most difficult point? He looked into the heavy undulating stream and returned. As he passed I greeted him and signed that there was a safe crossing point, even now. Oh yes, he knew, no he would just walk back to Monster, a coast town in the South. His bare chest, in spite of his age, presented tough endurance. He walked this for years now, even in winter, he said.

I looked inside, but could not remember to have met or seen him ever before. But, nevertheless he knew a lot of particularities on the Zandmotor-Project. All the planning faults, the wasting of public money and so on. They never ask the locals, who know their coast best. I listened and then he remarked, that he would go for a walk even early in the morning - around 5 AM. Sleepless, in some kind of a hurry:

“Time is running so fast,” he sighed, “at old age, even faster, it seems. I must go for this beach walk. To stay at home would be wasting my time…!” I could feel that he felt under pressure to start his way back. For a split second I saw what perhaps was our common fate. Walking with an unconscious fear of death on our heels. And this feeling! Every morning already a new day again, running out of time, help! Did I not brush my teeth a moment ago?!

OMG, my ultimate date is expiring soon, sooner...I looked into his tanned wrinkled face and smiled: “Perhaps Death is just another crossing-point like the many still waiting for the walker. Enjoy your day. It is so marvellous,” I said and I knew I would go for a stroll further to the South, for another swim and feel good friends with my aging self and when the moment will be there with dying as another crossing. At any Tide, High&Low.