Some twenty years ago I was having a bad visit with my dad. Bad. My thoughts were dark, and my mood was gloomy. I was filled with the kind of despair that only a fight with a family member can give you. Like, stabbing-knives kind of misery. To escape for a few hours Barb and I took our nephew and the canoe out to an island on the lake. We camped on it every summer as children.
We discovered that someone, now decamped and nowhere in sight, had built a magical sandcastle and town. Suddenly the black clouds lifted and I felt as filled with wonder as my nephew Niko.
The paths of the sandcastle town were lined with wild mushroom caps, still fresh and unblemished. Someone made the sandcastle just hours before we got to the island.
My photographs are decades old and pretty grainy. But you can see the sandcastle is truly in the middle of the Adirondacks wilderness (i.e. the middle of nowhere)… Only the shores of Cranberry Lake are all around.
Who built it? What whimsy inspired the person or persons to erect a fairy town on the waterfront of an island that few people ever visit?
The memory of that discovery and its gift of magic in the middle of a very hard place have remained as detailed as every bit of love and care that someone spent building it for us to find.
For those who want to know what happened next: Dad and I resolved our differences and grew closer again. I never found out who built that fairy town. But I still wonder why it appeared in my life at just that point and I remain grateful and filled with wonder that it did.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, WITH MY DEEPEST THANKS TO MY READERS AND FOLLOWERS. MAY THE COMING YEAR BRING ALL OF YOU DISCOVERIES OF SANDCASTLES WHERE YOU EXPECT THEM LEAST AND WHEN YOU NEED THEM MOST.
NOTES: Text and Photos ©2022 Jadi Campbell. The township of Cranberry Lake has a whopping total of 126 inhabitants. Finding a fairy castle and town built on the island there was nothing short of a miracle.
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That is truly an awesome sandcastle! Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you as well in Norway!
Thank you!
Happy new year Jadi
Thank you for your writing and blogging and giving your readings enjoyment
Thank you Gary for always making me hungry with your great food blogging!
I noticed your ‘like’ on my latest (though not so recent!) post so I went exploring your website/blog. I am now a follower! All the best for a New Year filled with hope and creativity.
Welcome Laura! I’m so glad you found me at the sandcastle!
Happy New Year. Thanks for all of your uplifting posts.
..as long as beers are uplifted as we write them!
that is absolutely magnificent, and what an incredible find! i think you were meant to find it right at that time.
I agree. And funnily enough, I refound my old photos just as I was pondering what to write for an end of the year post
everything when and where it should be
Magical, truly. What a wonderful find! And it appears to be nestled right next to a small grove of mushrooms also.
Someone set all those mushrooms in the sand: they were still so fresh that they looked like they’d grown there