There are no mistakes.

“There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go.”

– Richard Bach

Here, as I was laying belly down in a shallow tidepool, I reflected on what it had taken to get to this location to capture the last 45 minutes of light. I, for better or worse, am a truly shy photographer and dragging my gear through a very busy neighborhood and making the trek across a crowded beach to get to this location that I had never been, was indeed a point of stress.

However, as the sun started to dwindle, there came a point when the gulls and the sandpipers accepted me laying near, their euphony of calls pulling me into their world; it was dinner time and as I watched through my viewfinder, I rejoiced the gulls that found dinner, celebrated the Sandpipers teaching their young to forage, and marveled at this world where there are no mistakes, just survival.

Young Herring Gull moments after successfully catching a crab at dusk, Lookout Point, New York.