...the sneaky pebble...

Half of my geographical heart rests in Cape Breton…

One day on a beach, cavorting with my family, I came upon this little grouping of stones. I was most interested in the small white one with the fascinating texture. I spent quite a bit of time looking at it from various angles. I took a few pictures of it, and then, I went to pick it up, to be added to my growing collection of natural beauties.

Gasp!....

It was no stone…

It was a crappy piece of Styrofoam!!!

I had been duped.

I was disgusted that such an awful man-made chemical swill could have tricked me into feelings of pebbly fondness.

However, later that night – following many hours of picking frosted, polished sea glass, and countless other natural tid-bits, a thought “waved” over me…

The endless pounding of powerful water – far beyond the strength of that rounded hunk of Styrofoam, and the ceaseless rubbing of grit along its once sharp edges had actually transformed this thing into something of beauty!

How lovely!

And, how like life!!! The years … our experiences, our joys, our sorrows, our fears, our annoyances – roll over us day after day, and collectively, they work to pound us, toss us ... reform us.

And I believe that if we let ourselves be open to the ebb and flow of the life we have been given, we too will be shaped and carved, and smoothed and polished – whether we be a piece of glass, a piece of shell, a pebble or a loathsome piece of Styrofoam … with time we will be "worn" into an amazing and unique form of beauty!!!