Normally, on a "non-subbing day", I would be checking out the tidal charts to possibly head down to my favorite beach in Laguna to go sea glass hunting. The winter and early spring months are the prime season, as the storms, and seasonal currents kick up the gifts of more sea glass onto the shore... or hidden in the increased "rocky bits"! Retirement Bonus: People are working, the kids are still in school, and the summer crowds have not yet arrived; the beach is pretty much empty! Sea glass picking is getting extremely competitive now, it is becoming harder to find!
Today, when I went to look on my iPhone, the Tidal Chart website had fallen off my most frequent searches. REALLY? Has it been that long since the beaches have been closed? Today, there is a minus low tide at 2:45 pm... well shoot! I miss my life!
As you all know, Melda and I have a small sea glass jewelry business. It is truly a family deal! The sea is in our blood... growing up in San Diego; Mom loved the beach! She was the Mom that drove us and some of the neighborhood kids to the beach in summers: La Jolla Shores, La Jolla Cove, and Mission Beach being the favorites! For years, we vacationed every summer in San Clemente, and with the Bryants in Redondo Beach!
When I retired in 2015, Cheryl gave Melda and me a big box of sea glass that she had in her garage. She had walked the beaches in Santa Barbara for 10 years and this was her stash! WHAT A GIFT! Melda and I took a bead wire wrapping class in Laguna, and that was the start! We decided to name our business after Mom, 'MAREA BY THE SEA' after a plaque she had by her front door in Pacific Beach with a sailboat. She said at the time, she wanted to "do a play on words and make it rhyme". That became our LOGO.
Melda and I have a shop on ETSY, but are not very good at that type of marketing; we mostly sell at boutiques, (which have all been postponed). When we are at our boutiques... we have noticed that people are attracted to sea glass for many reasons... and they tend to want to reminisce about their childhood memories, or how beautiful the beaches used to be. People often share travel tips; suggestions on where to go to find sea glass... locally and far away! We are always taking notes! But one woman came to our booth and there were tears in her eyes... as she said: "Oh sea glass... we were just talking about that at our Bible class last night." She shared this poem with us... and coincidentally April is National Poetry Month!
 |
| Elaina-Avalos.com |
I want to age like sea glass. Smoothed by tides, not broken. I want the currents of life to toss me around, shake me up and leave me feeling washed clean. I want my hard edges to soften as the years pass -- made not weak, but supple. I want to ride the waves, go with the flow, feel the impact of the surging tides rolling in and out.
When I am thrown against the shore and caught between the rocks and a hard place, I want to rest there until I find the strength to do what is next. Not stuck, just waiting, pondering, feeling what it is like to pause. And when I'm ready, I will catch a wave and let it carry me along to the next place that I am supposed to be.
I want to be picked up on occasion by an unsuspected soul and carried along -- just for the connection, just for the sake of appreciation and wonder. Each encounter presents new possibilities of collaboration, and new ideas are born.
I want to age like sea glass so that when people see the old woman I'll become, they'll embrace all that I am. They'll marvel at my exquisite nature, hold me gently in their hands and be awed by my well earned patina. Neither flashy or dull, just the right luster. And they'll wonder, if just for a second, what it is exactly I am made of and how I got to be in this very here and now. And we'll both feel lucky to realize, once again, that we have landed in that perfectly right place and profoundly at that right moment in time.
I want to age like sea glass. I want to enjoy the journey and let my preciousness be, not in spite of the impacts of life, but because of them.
 |
We are our mother's daughters! LOL
www.seaglassjournal.com |
LYM,
Reenie
I love this poem. It's actually describes life perfectly! Thank you for sharing. Marcia
ReplyDelete