Thunder Hole in Acadia National Park (New England Road Trip #3)

"Thunder Hole"
by Virginia Knowles

we came to scatter her ashes

in the ocean at Acadia 
hundreds of miles from home
searching for such
beauty and majesty

as would well honor

a mother's memory

in the autumn

season of her birth

we journeyed together

to Thunder Hole where

high tide surges and crashes
into a cleft in the boulders

with a resonating boom and
a spurt of sea water 
into the sky

in the solitude of dawn

we climbed carefully down
a quieter cluster of boulders 
amid the gentle tide pools
and toward the sun 
shimmering on the horizon

then singing and speaking

words of comfort and honor

we released her ashes

toward the foaming waves

which danced across

the rocky shore to greet us

a breeze rose up swift and

a lacy gray veil of ashes

fluttered in the sky
then drifted down to the sea
to travel wherever

the currents will take them

ashes to ashes 
dust to dust 
we mourn the years 
without her yet
I know her spirit is
sheltered in the cleft

of the Rock of Ages

along the celestial ocean
of Beauty and Majesty

and Love

Our parents loved to travel and took the three of us children all over the United States, several national parks, and even a few other countries. Traveling to a Acadia National Park in Maine seemed a fitting tribute to my mother's spirit of adventure. My sister planned this 2015 trip for us; we were joined by one of my daughters and one of hers. You can read more about our New England travels here:

• #1: The Adventure Begins
• #2: Boston

I will try to post soon about the rest of Acadia National Park, as well as the National Gallery of Art in DC.

My mother, Mary Quarrier, passed away in July 2013 from complications of spinal surgery. You can read more about her here:

• A Tribute to My Mother

• A Eulogy is Also a Beginning

• Radiant Nurturer
• Vintage Photos of My Mother

Mom and I on a big rock
when I was a teenager

a family trip to Crater Lake
in Oregon in the 1970's

Mom in 2013