If you’ve been on the beach you’ve probably played the game...

If you’ve been on the beach you’ve probably played the game against the waves – on the lip of shore, running towards the ocean as a wave retreats, then dashing back towards dry sand as another swells and breaks. You win if your feet go untouched by the water, if the wave doesn’t lick your toes, heels, or ankles before being sucked back into itself. It’s a good game. It’s a good game even as a grownup.

Sanderlings are shorebirds that play this game all day. On stick legs, they scurry back and forth, an approach and retreat towards the waves, at search in the wet sand for sand fleas or crabs or clams or whatever crustacean bits it is they eat. This bird above is supposed to be a sanderling. I carved it while in India. It’s made of cedar from Massachusetts. It looks like a bird. But it doesn’t much look like a sanderling. They’re rounder, maybe chubbier looking, less differentiation between body and head. I left this bird in India at Sangam House as a sort of offering, a token of gratitude. It felt like the right thing to do with this first carved effort.

Writing this now reminds me that winter’s not a bad time for the beach and I can’t remember the last time I saw the ocean. Wave chasing stakes are higher anyway. And the sanderlings don’t fly south.