A little piece of hope
By Maxine Northam
This piece is special to me. Here, in New Zealand, we were given 48 hours to prepare for lockdown on the 23rd of March. In those last two days, scrambling to figure out how to work from home and getting supplies in for my elderly mum, I had a last beachcomb. It’s always the best way to calm my thoughts and just “be.” But my mind was whirling with a thousand thoughts tumbling over each other—it was hard to find my usual “zen” time.
I thought to myself, if I find something really special today, it will mean we will be OK…eventually. Pretty fanciful, sure, but that’s what I thought. And then I spotted this gorgeous pink and yellow bonfire piece winking in the afternoon sun! I’ve never found anything like it before, anywhere I’ve been. It’s my little piece of hope for the future of my family and for us as a country.
We have been very fortunate that we have only lost a handful of people to the virus and it looks like we are getting on top of it. I’m constantly thinking of my special beach, and it’s the first place I will head —after visiting my mum to give her a hug for the first time in weeks! Who would have thought we would live to see such a crazy and drastic change in our world? Nothing can ever be taken for granted, and now more than ever I really feel and understand the saying, “You only live once.”
Stay safe out there!
This article appeared in the Beachcombing Magazine July/August 2020 issue.
