I walk the Marginal Way scenic cliffwalk in Ogunquit, Maine all year round.
You can walk it two times in a row, and have a completely different experience both times. Different light. Different waves. Different boats on the horizon. Different clouds in the sky. Different artists painting different sections. Different people, sitting on different benches, lost in different types of mindful thought. Endless variations.
The passing seasons add their own color.
The crowded summer tourist days. The colorful autumn days. Late at night, by the light of the moon, when the waves seem to crash more intensely and I never run into another soul. In spring, when the leaves seem to grow over the course of just a few days. Even mid-winter, during fierce snowstorms, when treacherous ice along the pathway is hidden by snowfall, or the drifts are so tall that it’s possible to get stuck in waist deep snow as the relentless and biting wind howls.
While passing the Marginal Way Preservation Fund’s bronze recognition plaques, even during the quietest tides of the year, when it sometimes feels like I’m the only one walking anywhere near the coastline of Ogunquit, I often see flowers set out atop the granite stones.
In the warmer months they are fresh flowers. In the deep winter, they’re occasionally artificial flowers; but still welcome bursts of cheerful color among the whites and slates of the Maine off-season.
I often wonder on who placed the flowers there. Is it the same person every time?
I think on how, even during the harshest weather battering the craggy coastline, this spot is undeniably a heart-wrenchingly beautiful place to be remembered. A timeless and primal place to be honored by name against the elements. An intensely meaningful place at which to be paid tribute with bouquets of flowers placed within sight-line of the hissing and seething surf; within earshot of the continual roar of the ocean.
It’s a place where many shared memories have been created by generations upon generations of ocean-lovers. Magical summer evenings. Quiet romance by the sea.
It’s a place where I’d like to be remembered fondly. And a place amidst the salty air where the memories of others are easily conjured.
Learn More About The Marginal Way Preservation Fund Recognition Plaques
As a way of building their endowment fund to help protect the Marginal Way from future storm damage and erosion, the Marginal Way Preservation Fund is offering plaque inscriptions on ten plaques with 25 inscriptions on each plaque.
A total of ten bronze plaques will be placed on a special site along the Marginal Way, with each plaque recognizing 25 people and/or families.
The cost of each space on a plaque is $10,000. A minimum $2,500 reserves a space on a plaque with the balance due within two years. The Marginal Way Preservation Fund is an IRS certified 501 (c) 3 organization so donations to this fund are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.
These bronze plaques are now filling up and will be the last legacy names to be allowed on the Marginal Way – there will be no more after this.
Click here for more information: marginalwayfund.org/donate/plaques
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