Simply Stillness

What a wonderful weekend on Cape Ann. Summer arrived with a quiet stillness this past Saturday morning.

Here are a few images from Stoney Cove just after daybreak. I have been told that the name of the stone pier is Hodgkin's Pier. The Essex County Greenbelt Association describes Stoney Cove in this manner.

Stoney Cove has been a crossroads connecting West Gloucester to Gloucester since the earliest colonial days. West Gloucester colonists had to walk across the marsh, then row across the Annisquam River, to attend compulsory church services at the Green near the site of the present day Chester Grant Circle. In 1694, an initial public route was established by means of a ferry over the river and a causeway built over the marsh to the mainland near the head of Stoney Cove. The current location of Route 128 is superimposed over the old causeway in the immediate Stoney Cove Area.

The water was like a glass mirror, barely a ripple on the water.

The morning stillness reminded me of this writing of Dietrich Bonhoeffer from "Life Together".

"Silence is the simple stillness of the individual under the Word of God.
...
We are silent at the beginning of the day because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God.
...
But this stillness before the Word will exert its influence upon the whole day. If we have learned to be silent before the Word, we shall also learn to manage our silence and our speech during the day.

The silence of the Christian is listening silence, humble stillness, that may be interrupted at any time for the sake of humility."

It wasn't the fish that were biting this morning!

Visit the Essex County Greenbelt Association website for more details including a map of Stoney Cove.

Simply Stillness

C_A_B