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Life In The Middle

Learning About LIfe From The Sea

As I have mentioned more than one time, I love the sea. I love walking along a foggy beach in the early morning hours. I love the gray damp misty fog, I love the sunny days when everyone comes to enjoy the beach.

I have had the chance to enjoy the beaches and oceans of the United States while living in different areas. I have sunk my feet into the velvety white beaches of Virginia, and the Southern seaboard where the Ocean is so warm in Florida. I have enjoyed the beaches of Atlantic City, New Jersey. I’ve walked along the shore lines of New York and Massachusetts where the ocean is uninviting on most days. I have walked miles of Oregon beaches, where the sand is hard, and the ocean is cold, but certainly not frigid.

What isn’t there to love about the ocean? It’s the place to bring your family to play and frolic and build sand castles, and throw a frisbee. On the Oregon coast, as the sun sets, you can build a fire on the beach, and sit with your family and friends, and listen to the waves crashing in, and roast marshmallows and hotdogs. What could be more awesome?

The ocean is like a hoarder. It has bits and pieces of stuff unimaginable. Treasures from Pirates long ago, hand blown Chinese glass fishing floats, shells, ships; really anything can be found at times in different places. Several years ago we had terrible storms along the Oregon Coast. A couple were out walking in the early morning along the foggy beach that they had walked on for over fifty years. Protruding out of the sand was the foot long end of an 1800's cannon! All those years hidden from the daily walks of millions of beachcombers! That is what I mean about the ocean.

I admit that I have never stumbled upon a fantastic find like that, but I have found my share of perfect sand dollars, and small bits of sea glass that has been smoothed by years of buffeting from the sands of the sea.

In some ways it is more of a marvel when I find a perfect sand dollar. How has this fragile piece of perfection been tossed on to a sandy beach whole and perfect. You look around and see other sand dollars, sturdier than this delicate one. Why did the sturdy ones get cracked and broken? Yet here this one sits, porcelain white, perfect. A gift from the sea. A reminder that some things survive and some times, what is judged as surely a survivor, will crack and crumble under the mildest of storms.

On a shelf in my work room is a basket of odds and ends that I’ve rescued from the sea. They are reminders that we are all in the ocean of life getting tossed and having our strength and endurance tested. The question is how will we turn out over time? Will we be the perfect sand dollar or the broken one? No matter how rough the seas of life can seem, we can be like those few precious things the sea tosses onto the beach for everyone to marvel at. We can have our rough edges made smooth. We can stay together and hold our shape like the perfect sand dollar. So consider the type of treasure you are becoming. Are you learning and developing and strengthening yourself? Are you experiencing refinement through all your experiences? Just something to think about. Colleen

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