The Red Barn Run
January 1, 2003
For three years I lived in a pine cabin, in the woods, on Boston's North Shore. Stretches of beach and small islands served as sanctuaries for artists as well as piping plovers. In a vast expanse of estuary and ocean, summers were full of wildflowers, bumbling bees, and tidal currents that challenged my sea kayaking skills. During fiery autumns and frozen winters, hikes, books, and the scent of wood smoke spoke to me, "Breathe and rest." Life on that boundary of land and water began for me as an escape—less from the city, more from exhaustion and the memories of a lost love. I liked to go for hikes in the snowy salt marsh at low tide. One day the sunlight was getting away from me and I thought I'd catch the last of it. I threw on some Gore-Tex and hiking boots, and was off on what I remember as "the red barn run." I had a routine for these outings: put some wood in the stove for heat that night, either bring or hug the dogs, go down through the woods, pass the neighbor's chicken barn, greet the sheep, skirt the big red barn, hike into the marsh to the tide's edge, and be back home in under an hour. Tonight was different. A shining planet rose like a jewel beneath the crescent moon. Stars slowly emerged as members in the choir. Songbirds in their snowy pine trees became a timbered chorus of complex and lilting harmonies. The ocean tide slowly rose to the occasion. Earth and sky became the colors of bread and wine, flesh and blood. The setting sun turned the barn to orange and, later, to crimson. Something about it seemed too good to be false. I felt the inklings of a symphony behind which might be a score and a conductor. I sensed a story with a wooing author. I felt something like Tolkien's enchanted vision, but the rightful owner ...
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