Reva Thereafter - Girlyman


A few weeks ago, on another of these day off adventures, I was walking along the ocean in Raymond, Haiti. I was actually quite close to the public beach in Raymond which is where we take our kids swimming, if any of you are familiar with it. At the end of the beach, heading back toward Jacmel, it gets rocky-- not stony, like a bad beach, but large rocks so that as I walked along the water I was about 5 feet up. I had headphones in, and I was paying as little attention to my surroundings as possible, when I felt a warm, moist, burst of air on my foot. I knew the feeling, I remember visiting farms as a child and feeling the burst of air coming from a horse or a cow as I pet its head--something like a sneeze. Although it was familiar, it startled me. I was surprised, even as lost in thought as I was, that I had gotten so close to one of the cows that graze in those fields. Reflexively turning to see the animal that had just snotted all over me, I realized there wasn't one. Nothing was there to breath on me. I chalked it up to my general state of crazy these days and turned back to walk on. But, as is want to happen with mysterious circumstances, the moment I looked away I heard and felt the very same sensation. I quickly began to dig around in the undergrowth and noticed a crack in the solid stone that I was standing on. This crack opened into a hole and this small hole went all the way down to the water a few feet below me. I waited a few more moments to confirm my suspicion. Sure enough this hole was perfectly formed so that, whenever a wave struck the rocks at the correct angle, pressure would build, forcing warm, moist air out the end of the tube-- onto my leg. I'm reminded of this now as I watch wave after wave strike these cliffs and propel its water 10, 20, even 30 feet into the air.

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