I sit and watch

Julia ♦ September 18, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

Trust me: he’s really happy to see you! Jeff in Sint Maarten, March 2010

Oh! ’twas very sad and lonely
When I found myself the only
Population on this cultivated shore;
But I’ve made a little tavern
In a rocky little cavern,
And I sit and watch for people at the door…

Then we gather as we travel,
Bits of moss and dirty gravel,
And we chip off little specimens of stone;
And we carry home as prizes
Funny bugs, of handy sizes,
Just to give the day a scientific tone.

— Charles Edward Carryl (verses from the poem “Robinson Crusoe’s Story“)

I first encountered this delightful poem when I read a brief reference to it in a journal entry by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  When I looked up the poem and read the verse cited first above, I immediately thought of myself and this blog.  In a whimsical way that I could never fully explain, it just seemed to fit perfectly.

When I looked for a photo to go with it, though, the one posted above jumped out at me.  We came across this interesting little walled enclosure on the island of Sint Maarten (the Dutch side, if I remember correctly), and I begged Jeff to pose there for me, because the structure reminded me so much of him.  Mostly private, but occasionally accessible, especially through the eyes.  As you can see in the photo, he wasn’t enthusiastic about letting me snap his picture.  He never is, but sometimes he humors me.

Whether we are labeled as introverts or extroverts, all of us must sometimes feel the sting of loneliness, countered by the self-protective impulses that cause us to retreat to our “rocky little cavern(s).”  But to mix metaphors here, no person is an island, even if (as Ashleigh Brilliant has so aptly said) “some of us are long peninsulas.”  I know I watch for people at the door, and I bet you do too.

So now that you are here, come on in!  We’d love to know more about you.  If you’ve brought any bits of moss or specimens of stone, or funny bugs or whatever you have gathered over the years, please share them with us!  Try not to worry too much about wasting a few minutes here today.  As Robinson Crusoe learned, anything that can’t be done by Friday probably isn’t all that urgent to begin with.  😀

One year ago today:

If you look closely

This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.