Crab Reflections

 

The whole family was umming and ahhing about what we needed to do for the weekend. We were unsure whether we should be looking for a new place to live or running the errands that had piled up and avoided for so long, when our friend, who was already at a beach on an Island, kept insisting that we join him and his family for the weekend. We thought about the kids… they had been staying at home for a week due to hand foot mouth disease and were growing antsy…. we felt for them and decided to take them out to have some fun in the sun. The whole group of kids had contracted the same disease but were all on their way to recovery and so there was no point keeping them at home any more.

We drove down to the pier and then took a speedboat to the island. Everything was running smoothly and it was such a beautiful day. When we arrived it was already six o’clock and close to the kids’ bed time… so they all went to sit around the fire while I stayed back to prepare the beds for the kids. Meeting friends and chatting about nothing in particular washed away all the stress that had piled up during the week…. it felt good!

After my daughter went to sleep, I sat outside my room watching the waves roll gently on the beach… I had to close my eyes and take it all in… take in the fresh salty breeze… the crabs scurrying on the fluffy white sand… the music of the waves crashing on the beach. I watched the scene before me and thought so much about my life… 

I have two crab stories that I was encouraged by my keyboard (pen) pal to share with you all… ones that caused me to reflect back on my life… find some meaning to them and then link them to my own life… maybe you might do the same… maybe they will have some meaning in one way or another that would compel you to reflect on some incident(s) that you had experienced in your life.

Story No 1:

The beach was only lit by the moonlight and a few scattered lights on the old wooden pier. Crabs of all sizes were crawling along the sand trying to avoid one another; some going left while others went right. It was amazing watching them at night when no one else was around to scare them off forcing them to dig themselves deep in the sand. They were out; free to explore their white moonlit beach, mate or get to know the other crabs. There was one particular crab that caught my attention and was larger than the others and also of a different exoskeleton color. 

Now this fella took a fancy to one of the other small blondish colored crabs but was careful not to approach it without checking it out first. (S)he crawled closer to where the other crab was… they both started moving to the right and then the left of each other… sometimes going forward while the other went backwards… after a few minutes of this, the little crab seemed to have gotten bored of the whole dance or maybe just did not like the larger crab anymore, or was threatened by it, or … or… or… it lifted its pincers and darted after the larger one scaring it away. I had never seen a crab scamper away so fast in my whole life.   

Story No 2:

I was at the beach lazing around digging a hole in the sand while my daughter was helping me a little and then running back to the sea to splash water with her little feet. At one point, I saw something gray and touched it… I thought it was a rock and decided to dig deeper to fetch it… it was a good thing I was just using my fingers to dig and not a sharp tool… no sooner had I touched the grey object that it jumped out of the hole and scurried to another spot on the beach, dug itself into the sand again and hid… it was a crab… I had invaded its home… disrupted its quiet moment and robbed it of its privacy…. Still it made me laugh as I was surprised at my find… the crab of course wanted nothing to do with me and just wished to be left alone… After my initial reaction, I felt bad…  I felt I had driven it out of its home and sent it off like a refugee to another place. 

There were so many issues in my life that these stories reminded me of… it was very easy for me to find a story to link it to these crabs… I am sure I had driven many people away because I expected certain things to happen… or maybe I scurried away because I felt threatened by someone… I might have disturb someone’s privacy and did not leave them alone when they wanted to be left alone… or had someone impose themselves at my home when I just wanted to have a quiet moment. 

Do any of these stories remind you of an incident in your life?