Rocks on the Beach

December 15, 2019

 

OMG – God is so good

 

I had a truly beautiful day today … Started with a brunch with Dana … we had a good talk … she has put herself out there in so many ways … she had posted on her Facebook page her vulnerability with her grief … I had already planned a trip to come to Carlsbad and I had just come from a similar spot of grief. I wanted to connect!

 

I have always admired Dana ... she is beautiful (both inside and out), smart, funny, caring, sharing, ambitious ... a total class act … She also really put herself out there when she got married, had kids, moved to Carlsbad – moved her family, and career, to get the life she wanted … she did it … a true success story …

 

After Brunch, I took a drive down the beach all the way to Solana Beach, turned around and went to a Sunday farmer’s market in Leucadia where I bought some apples, pomegranate juice, and some vegan peanut butter cookies from a young teenage sales woman who was starting young, but already knows how to sell … 2 packages for $5! Ok – I’ll take them! It was a scene of delicious community with kids and adults running around without shoes, happy dogs, tails wagging … free on a gorgeous sunny day … my tail was wagging too

 

A nap is always in the schedule on Sunday, so I took a nap and decided I was going to collect rocks on the beach at sunset when I woke up … I had taken a walk yesterday/the day before at the same time and there were a few rocks on the beach, they would not be there in the morning as the tide would be up (I had taken a walk on the beach the day before in the morning and this area was covered with water … high tide) for whatever reason I did not connect the fact that I have recently become a rock painter so I did not collect a single rock that day – HELLO!! Ha! But it did hit me later and I decided to bring a bag to collect the few rocks that I had seen on the beach the day before …they were the perfect size and smooth shape for painting …

 

I got to the beach and the beach was COVERED with stones … I freaked out! There had only been a couple the day before?! Then it hit me that there had been a storm the night before … I busily started to collect rocks like mad – there were so many – thousands … I only had a little bag, but they are heavy when you get a hundred rocks in a bag … I figured out I had enough time to get back to the nearby motel to get my car, dump a load and get back to get another haul before sunset …

 

Dogs were playing with each other, a large party of people hung out nearby, kids, grandparents, couples, singles, fishermen, etc … all hung out to watch the sun setting …

 

A couple was walking along and he asked me if I had found any good ones… he was talking about shells - he thought I was collecting sea shells – which, I’ll be honest, I will not turn down a good seashell when I see one, but I was on a rock collecting mission! I started to explain to him I am a rock painter …. He said, “There’s a good one behind you!” … I thought ‘there are a THOUSAND good ones behind me!!’ But I looked and he had left a BEAUTIFUL, unique shell, the likes of which I have never seen … I looked back at him and his lady friend and we all laughed … so good … the kindness of a stranger, sharing a beautiful moment on the beach together.

 

I started thinking about how life’s storms end up leaving things for us like these rocks on the beach … little treasures if we look for them … like self-esteem, compassion, better understanding, wisdom, peace, joy, little nuggets of spiritual gold, if we are willing to look for them, SEE them in our midst and collect them …

 

When I started picking up the rocks, the first thing I saw was a plastic straw. My Friend Kerri is big on cleaning up the beach from a post she saw on FB regarding a plastic straw that was up a seal’s nose … someone helped him by getting it out … I picked up the straw first, before I picked up any rocks, it was like my right of passage and permission card to be able to have the right to pick up stones, I had to pick up anything that would harm the environment as well … I also found a plastic toothpick; which Kerri ALWAYS has in her mouth … needless to say, she has very good dental hygiene ... just a side note … SO, I knew Kerri was with me in spirit, on the beach, helping me to collect rocks for our projects …

 

Kerri is my rock painting partner along with Kellie. We paint rocks for the living and the dead. We met Kellie in our grief recovery counseling, and we became fast friends. We paint rocks and talk about the dead and the living and how to live with the living and the dead … we paint rocks for old folks homes and Dia De Muertos for people to have a memento of their loved one … these beach rocks are the PERFECT shape and size for our rock/stone sugar skulls

 

We have been having an ongoing discussion about whether rocks have a spirit and can talk. Sometimes they tell you things, like how to paint them … We had a discussion on Thanksgiving Day about whether rocks have souls from a story in the BIG BOOK of Alcoholics Anonymous where they were discussing such matters … The BIG BIG BOOK – AKA The Bible, says that even the rocks cry out (Luke 19:40) and will shout of his glory … Let ALL creation praise HIM … these beach rocks were speaking to me, telling me they wanted to be used for Him … (no, not audible voices, but speaking to me on their terms, in their language … I told you I was fluent in Crazy, so yes I am fluent in rock dialects too! Ha!) … some wanted to be used for His Glory … some just wanted to stay on the beach … just like people, some want to be used and some just want to lay there doing nothing, being tossed about by the storm, being tossed whichever way life moves them … some cry out to be of service for greater glory … I want to be and have asked to be one of THOSE kind of rocks …

 

I thought of My friend Lulu because I knew she would understand my analogies … she is a writer and deduces moral and spiritual conclusions of ordinary circumstances, such as collecting rocks on a beach … it is one of the things I appreciate most about her …

 

Also brought to mind is Kelly Ann, my Weight Watchers (WW) leader/coach who collects white rocks on long island beaches for our meeting/workshop. When a member gets to lifetime/goal weight she gives them a white rock from her hometown. The rock symbolizes in Roman times when a prisoner was released from prison they were given a stone to prove their legitimate freedom … it was like their walking papers … their parole documents … she gives our members a rock to show they are legitimately free from the prison of unwanted weight. I remember after Hurricane Sandy she said the beach was absolutely full of these stones … I think it is funny that most of the stones I am finding are black … maybe it an East Coast v. West Coast stone thing … don’t know, but somehow I find it appropriate since we will be painting many of them as skulls for Dia de Muertos. Maybe also since I still wrestle with my dark side a bit …

 

My brother, Scott, AKA Squatty because he squats and does competition squat events, had just posted on FB his experience with squatting so I was thinking to myself “I wonder how many times I am squatting to get these rocks?!” At least a few of hundred times … his squats are heavy like 235-345 lbs 1x-15x … these squats are the opposite … 1 ounce 300x-400x … but I am there in spirit with him, lifting our tasks with passion … thinking about him, loving him, praying for him, his life, his family … as I do all my friends and family when I think of them …

 

The day ended with me writing this blog at the local Starbucks having a hot cup of Teavana peach tranquility tea, listening to young couples flirt, cops, homeless people and people with more dogs (dogs are so happy at the beach … possibly even happier than humans at the beach)

 

Then half price sushi at the Mexican sushi place … the place is run by Mexicans … they are good at it and the right price for sure … I think I could eat sushi everyday if given the chance … especially for half price!

 

SO many good things in one day … Thank you Jesus for guiding me daily for these little nuggets of wisdom I get to collect … little nuggets I get to pick up as I go along to help me navigate this life … little nuggets to make me smile, interact with and think about others as I go along … thank you for including me in your magical Kingdom one more day … Thank you for the Love and Joy you provide to me daily, as long as I am willing and ready to look for it and see it right in my midst … Thank you Lord … thank you …