There might not have been a better way to observe Earth Day on Cape Cod than to take in Henry Beston's Cape Cod nature classic, The Outermost House. The 1928 book is considered to be a major influence on the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore.
I'm happy to return to leading history walks at Cape Cod National Seashore for the Harwich Conservation Trust and the Eastham Conservation Foundation in 2023, with Saturday's event being the first of several. This "Outermost House" hike went from Nauset Light to Coast Guard Beach, with about 20 people joining us. I concluded the walk with the final paragraph of Beston's literary masterpiece:
“Hold your hands out over the earth as over a flame. To all who love her, who open to her the doors of their veins, she gives of her strength, sustaining them with her own measureless tremor of dark life. Touch the earth, love the earth, honor the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and dawn seen over ocean from the beach.”
Thanks to Gerry Beetham of the HCT and Tommy Tuttle of Orleans for their visual contributions here.