My friend flies in from Boise to assist at the ceremony, Re-Storying our Modern Lives – a Ceremony to Renew a Living Myth for Eairth.

She’s suffered a lot recently, so we walk a nearby beach to ground ourselves in sand and sea. My boisterous elder dogs gambol at the murky water’s edge, sluggish from heaps of seaweeds gathered at the froth line.

Dog gamboling produces the momentary squatting stance of obligatory pooping for which I’m always prepared with plastic bags. . . a conundrum if ever there was one. In this day of recycling and contributing to the well-being of the planet, I’m confused by whether it’s really correct to put poop in plastic into the landfill. Reallllly?

I see Taka far off behind a log with that classic silhouette of curved spine and tucked butt. I amble toward where he’s been. I can’t find “his business” at first, so squat myself to investigate more carefully behind the log and my eyes stumble on filigree.

What the H E doubletoothpicks is this???

Having spent time beach seining last winter ( see this post ) this delicate perfection of skeleton bursts open my memory banks of the tiny stature of many living sea creatures – Snout nose, needle nose, tube fish, sea horse…

But it is none of these and two fish biologists have declared they are not sure what it is.

Yet this tiny being once lived in this vast ocean.

The winged aspect blows my imagination open. The flared nostrils suggest a mini-dragon. It looks like it might have had a fan tail. The large holes in the wee skull suggest huge eyes. The arched bridge between brow and mouth, not as thick as a standard hand-sewing needle, suggests a Roman nose.  And looking through my ten power jewelers’ lens, I can see one tiny triangular tooth in the center of the top jaw.

EEEEEE gad what do we have here?

What we have here is awe. Grated over pebbles, refined by sand, tangled in sea grasses and tumbled through water, this tiny fleshy body morphed to this gossamer skeleton, snuggled momentarily against this log waiting for my wonder . . . reminding me of the tensile strength of living in this vast universe where my bones are but filaments, too.