Floating Beside the Shale

The East Coast always seemed to me a place, much more than California, defined by roads, homes dotting every landscape. The East Coast is a place, only slightly more than the West, of lost stories, of dead generations in small colonial towns — a place rubber stamped firmly with the touch of European history. The beginning of conquest is there, homes dotting every area, with few trails going too far away from towns and villages. It’s because of this that whenever I find a small area that is quiet, that is calm, a place that, however false, is less peopled than the rest of it, I am drawn to a feeling in these places of resilience, of thriving lives, despite history. These are in pockets of upstate New York, Vermont, Maine.

My favorite pockets of wild are the smallest spits beside city streets and modern homes. Horseneck beach in Massachusetts or Blackstone Park in Rhode Island both come to mind. However, my favorite is the small shale rocked coves of Beaver Tail State Park on Conanicut Island. Going there in the summer feels like stepping into a small Mediterranean outcropping, something so calmly beautiful that it’s hard to even believe that it is here, in this state.

From the shoreline, choosing your own little cliff-edged cove, you can look out to beyond the mouth of Narragansett Bay to Block Island. The inlets are surrounded by pebbles. Turning and looking up to the cliffs there are shelves of plants, growing on the layers of shale, being fed by what appears to be an endless running stream of ground water. Simply put, it is a place of magic.

I only knew of it in the last couple months living in Rhode Island but I quickly became obsessed with it — how it existed on the edge this highly paved state, mostly unbothered. But for many in Rhode Island, it is already known a magical place. For the Narragansett people native to this place, many lived and found their final rest beside it. Today, it’s where people go to lay in the beach, to stand on the edge of sharp rocks and fish or, as I saw most recently, snorkel along the edge of the island. It’s a rare kind of beauty for this area, one that feels mostly wild. People know this. It’s why Mikey proposed to Rachael there.

I visited Beaver Tail the day after Rachael and Mikey’s wedding. We, Matt, Sahal, and Matt’s sister Grace, drove out there, the day warm, but the sun clear and bright. Like visiting Providence, I was worried that the beauty of this place was something that I maybe made up. But as we arrived in the parking lot, sitting in the grass to eat before heading to the water, it all was still there, the same old beauty. I kept thinking about Racheal and Mikey, how this was the place for the beginning and continuation of their love. I can’t think of a better place on this side of the country to begin a life with someone. How lucky they were, I thought, as we walked down the trail, finding our own little cove.

We sat for a while, quietly basking in the sun, wandering around, until we all got into the water. Floating in the low tide, sea lettuce between us and the shore as we were stirred around and the crab pots bobbed beyond us. From where we floated the edges of shale bedrock on the shore, jutting sharply up, looked like large teeth coming out of the ocean to bite the earth. Here, you are able to forget what world you are a part of, how close the concrete laden towns of Rhode Island are to you. In that sense it’s a place that holds hope. It’s a simple kind of magic, one that regardless is not easily found. But it can be, if one looks.

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Thanks so much for reading everyone! It truly means so much that y’all check in every time I write these little stories.

That being said, I was curious if anyone here has anything they’d like me to write about? I’m pretty curious what y’all might like to see me explore! It could be anything! Want me to write about Q-Tips? Want me to write about Q-Tip? Want me to write about the politics of Q-Tip? Or maybe something else completely unrelated to Q-Tips?

Please let me know! Very curious to hear your thoughts y’all. Just comment below or reply to this email.

Thanks!