Re-Energize & Be Inspired

The full moon coming languishing in the sky over the ocean at sunrise was my beckoning to explore the beach this morning at Fort Myers, FL.  While I am an early riser, I am not often inspired to go outside and push my muscles.  However, that nagging moon called me to the seaside faster than I often venture out of my warm, cozy bed.


Therese and I finished up our annual Kaye's College with our friend Kaye England.  Days of filling our minds and visions with quilting are a beautiful way to then be buffered with ample sunshine, warm breezes and enjoying our meals under the canopy of the glorious skies....some sunny, some moon-soaked and (for our friends "back home") some miserable rains.  (Am hoping the description of the misery of rain takes away the sting of our families who do NOT want to hear the weather reports as they shield from the arctic cold and snow when we call home.)

Therese and I were out studying the sand for shells.   An elderly gentleman stopped to talk with us about the shells we had found.  He named all those we had and told us of how common most of them were.  One particularly battered one he called a "very poor specimen".  Neither of us were deterred by his description of what it a good specimen is to be.   As he walked away, neither of us were tempted to pitch it back into the surf.    I don't think there are bad and good shells.  I even enjoy broken shells.   I am sure literature over the ages has compared humankind to every form of nature.  So, please forgive this tale if it is tires you on literary form.

I enjoy believing that sand is innumerable shells that have had their lives worn to bits.  I hope to be sand when my life is gone.  Of course, shells were part of a vital ocean life form.  Their remains that we gather and marvel at are carried about by the tides.  Some grand and glorious have graced our dinner tables as decor.  Even soap dishes are the shells.  Others have enjoyed tours of duty in children's hands as shovels on the beach.  We humans enjoy similar duties--glorious, utilitarian and joyous.   Some of us have chips and cracks.  Yet all have the most beautiful and gentle glory of being shaped by a great artisan.

As I was picking out a set of graduated sized shells as I walked, I agonized over a particularily large piece that was covered with barnacles.  While mature and glorious, it was not as pristine as a shell that has been polished and without defect.  Then I considered my own life.  Indeed, there are times that as I age, I am very aware that I am not considered by my own shell but also by those people and events that embellish my life.  While not always attractive, it is who I am and how I am designed.    I am very grateful to be useful, to be glorious and to be joy-filled.

Time away is energizing, inspiring and gives me the chance to realize my calling.  I hope this for all of you....jill