Sea Glass
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She wanders down the shoreline searching for sea glass. Periodically, she looks up and adjusts the strap on her weathered one-piece bathing suit. She used to wear a bikini, but those days are long-gone. Her skin is weathered now, with the lines and folds of being broken in.
It's still early. Her children and their families are asleep. She and her ex-husband used to use this time to walk together. Now she sleeps and walks alone. Last night, one of her daughters confessed her marriage was in trouble and her son admitted his eldest child might need to go to rehab. There was a time when she longed for, even demanded, everyone be happy, but she’d given that up a few years ago. Now she tried to accept life for the struggle it sometimes is.
A blue piece of sea glass catches her eye and she bends down to pick it up. It’s still translucent with sharp edges, so she casts it back into the sea for more time. Farther down, she finds a green piece that’s perfect. The tides had worn down it edges and softened its color.
Looking for sea glass was something she did with her mother when she was a little girl. They would walk for hours and she would try to convince her mother a piece was ready when it wasn’t. “Give the sea time,” her mother would repeat. “Give the sea time.”
Like her mother, she learned the sea takes a broken piece of glass and makes it a work of art. When pushed and pulled against the sand for years edges soften, and new shades of color appear.
Kind of like me, she jokes to herself as continues down the beach.
Extra Credit:
In what way are you like a piece of sea glass? Have you been broken? Have you been weathered by the tides? Pushed and pulled across the sand?
Can you see how life has worn down your edges?
In what way has your life become a work of art?