Missed the Hunt

I had hoped to do some sea glass hunting while in Maine. Of course, no one was giving up the goods on the great beaches. But, when we figured we’d go island hopping it didn’t work out time or money-wise. That was fine. I’m partial to my geographically local finds though I have no idea where the loyalty comes from.

I was able to body surf one day in Maine’s cool waters and ride the waves. I didn’t get flipped over, tumbled or scrape the sandy bottom so my ride was much smoother than that of sea glass but I felt an affinity for the glass. The enormous miles of sandy beaches with few shells and no sea glass seem strange, a little too clean and pristine – though it’s ice to go barefoot without worry.

During vacation I was able to sit with my young cousins and daughter and  some sea glass wrapping and they had so much fun, such pride at their creations as well as complex personalities. One finished her piece in no time and it was beautiful. One got discouraged and deflated. Another made use of the beads and attached sea glass as an, “Oh yeah.”

I am happy to be home and can’t wait to hit the beach alone and in search of the glass. I had a full week with dozens of family members, hundreds of photos, the heart full with knowing I can’t time with anyone for granted. I enjoyed the moments and the stretch out of my comfort zone – home – and am also so happy to be home where the sunflowers have grown, some flowers  and lots of mail waiting to be opened. Back to the sea and the sand soon. It was nice to be and feel so far away and to put aside the daily routines and worries. But also, home is the stretch after a cramped car ride, the yawn upon waking, the slide under familiar sheets.

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No Problem Sea Glass Can’t Solve

We used to say, “There’s no problem a Cheerio can’t solve,” when our one-year old was upset. We knew, even as new parents how fleeting that woulld be. For me, this morning, it seems there’s nothing a sea glass hunt can’t cure.

 

Is it the sea gull song? The persistent chirp of another bird hidden in the trees? The waves, mellow, a light load tumbling in nature’s washing machine. Whatever commercial or recreational uses will stir the waters later today the water is calm now. Fishers, commuters and kayakers must still be sleeping. There is the stillness and the thick humidity and fog.

 

I’m partial to my beach and finding all of my own sea glass on the South Shore. I was willing and wanting to hunt in Maine where we vacationed but no sea glass junkies were willing to give up the treasured spots where glass still litters the sea shoree. Maybe I’d find a treasure they were sure was meant for them or take too large a serving of the glass that becomes rarer and more difficult to find. Have I not been bitten by the sea glass bug so deeply as they? I am not protective of “my” source and “my” beach. Will I some day resent all of the people I have taken to walk the rocky coastline? I hope not.

 

A friend said yesterday, “The sea glass knows who loves it,” as though it rise up off the sand to say, “pick me and I love the idea of the glass seeking us as we seek, the idea of glass, like puppies in a pound being charming and wagging their tale for the right owner and others barking ferociously knowing, “They won’t know how to love me.”  I picture pieces hiding, on purpose, camouflaging themselves in rock, sand and near shells as though they can borrow the legs of a crab and scoot themselves over until the one who will make it a good home or find a good use is identified. Perhaps there’s an underwaterr space where sea glass scribes about the the journey to land to match up with the right person riding underwater sound waves and sharing with the shellfish, the algae, the underwater life under the surface.

 

I think the finding sea glass might have to do with good eye sight and a flexible back, strong knees and the ability to tilt over, head and hair touching the sand to see what is below. It is the practice of bending to see which has transformed me most for I now bend to ponder why one hydrangea bush is growing blue an purple flowers in balls of fluff while another one foot away seems to be puking out a few desperate pink petals.

 

I recognize what an over eager gardener I was when I let my daughter and her friend plant row after row of sunflower seeds and how I didn’t imagine them half to full grown and how they would crowd my butterfly bush. Next year I’ll know better because this year I noticed.

 

Tiny lessons. Huge lessons. Pay attention to any one thing and you learn everything. The challenge is to be still, loyal, returning again and again when it is rainy, uncomfortable, boring or triggering. It doesn’t matter if the thing is exercise, meditation, parenting or eating healthy. It’s that Cheri Huber saying about how you do one thing is how you do everything….

 

A year ago i discovered sea glass. it spoke to me quickly and deeply. I screamed to anyone who would listen, “Come. Come quick. There’s gold. I’ve found gold.” I have watched three-year olds discover red, come up to me again and again to say, “Cissy, look at what I’ve found,” with pride and enthusiasm and asking for me to hold their precious stones or give them a bag. I’ve bumped into egos, mostly mine, and still, i return to expand. It’s a spiritual calling. Of course it will require me to become larger, bigger and a better version of myself than I had been.

 

This morning, I smell the sandd and the sea, hear the waves and the birds, and dismiss the idealogies and worries and differences I feel with others. The sea glass does and has and will teach me the lessons I need to learn and I can’t know all of them yet. I am not static, not right or wrong, not a line or a path but a series of waves lapping the shore, each one on an individual journey,, each one following the one before it and with another after.

 

I can’t imagine being a person who says, “I can’t tell you where I hunt sea glass,” or doesn’t share the shore with loved ones, company and neighbors, who worries that something that came from the sea belongs to me. I’ll eventually find peace and have more than enough pieces already.
So, catch of the day today:

• a purple frosted bottle lip
• a white piece of white bonfire glass
• a tiny aqua piece the size of a thumbnail
• a light purple shaped like a filled-in v
• a light green rectangular shape
• 15 bowns in shades as light as almost orange and so dark they are almost black
• 2 light pinks, thick and roundish
• 4 whites, 1 big and thick, three small and super frosted
• 3 dark greens – medium sized
• 3 transparent greens, small as the baby teeth that fall out

The return to sand and sea and spiritual solitude.

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