There is an almost perfect concave-cupped cove in Machiasport that will listen to your thoughts.
It has been here for eons. Its shore is covered in stones of all size, shape and color. There is no sand, only loose brightly polished and rounded rocks of granite, red rhyolite, quartzite and other rock reduced in size as primordial seconds roll into millennia. The waters of Machias Bay bless the beach with answers to questions, many not yet asked.
Jasper Beach is special. Its remoteness — though right off the road — embraces a collective essence as one travels through the small villages of Larrabee, Bucks Harbor, East Side and Starboard. This place provides a stoic welcome that will relieve just about any of the day’s ills.
The road, known as “Port,” has one beginning point in Machias and another in Starboard. In between is a sparse essence that can only be found Down East. A working harbor, white-steeple churches, friendly hand waves, historic parks and buildings, trees, hills, mudflats and ocean views that touch the horizon greet those arriving or passing through. When traveling Down East there are no end points, only beginnings.
Many people who visit Jasper Beach share their experience. In writings, in song, in photographs, video and in sculpture, people express the connection they feel to the locale. Delicately balanced stone cairns are built or messages spelled out in different sizes and colors of stone, even a large lobster — shaped from beach stones — arrived to claim its 15-minutes of fame just a couple of years ago. Created by a visiting family, it was their totem to both a special place and an artful expression of their gratitude for their questions being answered that day.
Whenever I visit Jasper Beach I make time to allow it to give me its time. I sit with eyes closed. The wind pulls at my thoughts. The sunlight on my face is a warm compress that soothes, allowing me to relax and enjoy the show. The ocean’s waves beckon. I hear each wave borne off the ocean’s floor rise and move forward. The wave curls and then falls onto a beach of stones, creeping ever closer towards me. When the wave flattens on the shore, the stone’s song briefly is suspended in silence until the wave pulls back leaving a myriad of stones clapping their appreciation. And in my mind I am clapping, too.
Each of the countless stones harbor something unique — perhaps the answer to your question. Anyone can be found in thought amidst the song and stories being made here each and every day. I describe it as a chorus of yesterdays, taking visitors to a better place at that moment.
To spend time here with eyes closed, asking questions, sharing feelings or simply sitting quiet and alone is special. Every second of time has been captured here and reveals itself through the interaction of the tides, the ocean’s waves and the stone’s storytelling.
It is rare to find reliability, with unreliability being a near-constant companion to our day-to-day machinations. It is a troubling constant that stands erect through our weeks, months and years. Life’s chaos and unpredictability are undaunted.
At Jasper Beach there is reliability, there is calm, there is resolute determination, there is serenity and beauty, there is water and there are the stones and the stories they tell to those who listen. It is as if being surrounded by trusted friends in a place that offers a solemnity unmatched amidst tide and water.
And the exclamation point is that these revelations are seen, heard and appreciated by all who visit. The tide then returns to wash all of it back into the sea so others can arrive with clean slate in hand and have their own experience again and again.
The lives this special place touches when visited linger behind, as do the stones that sang their song. The stones must remain as they are, where they are, so they can continue what they have been doing for eons. To arrive, spend time and then leave a place as it is found gives added meaning to that moment, and to the beach.
