The Map the Tide Left Behind

Every wave redraws the shoreline, leaving quiet instructions in its wake.

When the water finally pulled back, it did not return the world as it was. The shore had shifted ,lines carved where none had been before, sand pressed into patterns that would not wash away with the next tide.

It’s easy to think of waves as destroyers, but they are also cartographers. They leave maps in the debris, in the placement of stones, in the curve of driftwood that marks the farthest reach of the flood.

If you stand still long enough, you begin to read it ,the way the water circled here, the way it slammed straight through there, the places it spared without reason. The patterns are not for beauty; they are for understanding.

There is no rushing this kind of knowledge.

You trace the edges of what has changed, your feet sinking into new ground that has already decided what it will hold and what it will never keep again.

And in those moments, you see it clearly: the map is not for finding your way back. It is for showing you the way forward, through a landscape you would never have recognized before the tide touched it.

~Kerri-Elizabeth~

This series follows the slow work of storms and tides, charting the spaces they leave behind. Tomorrow, the current turns toward what it means to rebuild in the quiet , not as it was before, but as it can be now.

The Weight of Water

Even the fiercest wave can carry you home if you learn to trust its pull.

Grief comes in waves

not gentle tides,

but deep-water surges

that pull at the roots.

You can stand against it,

or let it take you

both are exhausting,

both leave you changed.

Grief is what we view,

based on what we can’t see anymore.

A tidal wave of loss.

There is also the grief you can see,

touching a different depth,

the kind that

requires another enduring perspective.

One that is received , with

or without permission.

Like waves laying upon a quiet beach,

the weight of water

is the weight of memory,

pressing against the chest

until every breath

is a choice.

When it recedes,

you find the shore altered

lines drawn where none were before,

stones rearranged,

driftwood marking where the tide reached last.

You learn to read those signs,

to know how far the waves can come

before they break you again.

And maybe,

just maybe,

you begin to trust

that even in the pull,

something is carrying you home.

~Kerri-Elizabeth~

Every wave changes the shoreline and every change leaves a map. This series moves with the water and the wind, through the quiet ache and the slow return. The next current rises tomorrow, and its direction is still unknown.