The beach

I feel fortunate to have the beach only 500 metres away from our house, this morning particularly so. I had just had an irritating call to Vodafone, having to sort out, yet again, a doubled-up bill. The tide was a metre or two from full, with the gentle waves lapping at my feet, while black clouds loomed overhead, threatening rain. There was a gentle wind, but my coat kept me warm and the rain held off until I got back to the house. The walk was only a short one, but enough to restore my sense of well-being, also helped along by the discovery of a broken horsemussel shell. I picked this up and washed the sand from its interior to find the most intricate shell work inside, truly beautiful. I thought about this shell, ugly and broken on the outside, but full of beauty within and saw the correlation to us as humans. How many times have we missed an opportunity to get to know a beautiful soul, simply because of their outside appearances? Nature can teach us many lessons, if we only take the time to read them, none more so than this beautiful shell this morning.