Sidestepping Sargassum’s Stories: Join My 365-Day Peaceful Photo Challenge
DAY 315. Living with irrevocable differences and curating peace through contemplative photography.
July 13, 2025
Instead of taking the hotel shuttle to Coki Point Beach, I started walking along the decaying Sargassum-covered Pineapple Beach, turned right onto Suzzanna Boulevard for a quarter of a mile, and eventually crossed the road to the eastern end of the beach.
The hot, golden sand was alive with beach chairs, umbrellas, and bustling sunbathers, talking, laughing, and playing loud music. The noise was as thick as the crowd, and the bay was invisible.
The western end of the beach seemed empty, so I navigated my way through the trafficked throng toward the quiet.
Finally, I could see it all — the crystal clear, shimmering turquoise water of Coki Bay gently kissing the shore, swimmers and waders deeper in the bay, the sand on which I stood, and just beyond my feet, a thick ribbon of dark brown Sargassum that stretched the entire length of the beach. In the water, too, along the western wall forming the bay, was a golden-brown raft of seaweed.
On shore and in the water, beachgoers naturally gravitated away from the Sargassum-covered areas, gathering instead where the sand and water were clear. Human nature tends to seek beauty and comfort, often overlooking what discomfort and unpleasantness want to teach us.
Yesterday, I saw Sargassum for its ecological benefits, as a sore, and as a mirror.
Today, the metaphors deepen. The crowded two-thirds of the beach accepted and avoided the seaweed and leaned into their enjoyment. Both the quieter western section and the seaweed-covered strip of beach invited contemplation: What do we avoid, and why? What truths lie tangled in the margins?
But Sargassum is our messenger. It’s tangled, brown presence declares the growing impact of our widening, warming human fingerprint on the Earth.
The beachgoers’ dance around the Sargassum is not about avoidance but about adaptation and quiet acknowledgment. Their sidestepping shows we are not truly listening to what Nature is telling us. However, through the spread of Sargassum, Nature is calling us to care for and live in harmony with Her more consciously.
Peace today came not in a pristine environment and perfect pictures, but in Nature’s invitation to reflect on her rhythms and our own.
What are you sidestepping in your life that is calling for attention?