Pieces of other lives.........

It seems summer has not only left us, but slammed the door upon exit.  I've been hoping for just another day or two of kayaking, but the water is cooling so quickly that may not be possible.   I'm perfectly willing to brave chilly water....I will even bear up under the indignity of stuffing myself into a wet suit to go out and enjoy another day of water, wind and peace.  These gilt edged fall days are amazing out on the water....Josh Groban singing to me in Italian from the tiny MP 3 player clipped to my suit.... the deep, dark water offering no resistence as I slide across its surface.

My outings are punctuated with stops at beaches to clamber out of the kayak and scour the beach for beach glass.....the perfect example of  "one mans junk is another mans jewel". I am taken with the silly romantic notion that a glass object went into the water, was broken into dozens of pieces and tumbled about the lake for years and years.  Today, for some reason, the finished product has landed at my feet for me to find.   Perhaps it was a soda or beer bottle, perhaps a very old medicine bottle or the window from some freighter that went down in a storm on the lake.  Whatever it's origin, however gently or violently the raw materials came to be in the lake, I now stand with this small piece of someone elses life in my hand. 

From what I've read and heard in lectures it takes from two to twenty years for the lake to smooth, buff, etch, and tumble a piece of broken glass into a jewel-like treasure for me to find.  It seems to me to be the ultimate in natural recycling.   Fossils, unusual rocks, and unique pieces of driftwood also catch my eye.  Perhaps to some it's not an exciting hobby...but this time on the water and on the beach is a gentle time of discovery for me.

What a wonderful time of life this is.  Time, so precious, to explore and enjoy a beach, a sunny day.  Time to add these beautiful pieces of someone elses life to my own.  I've come to the conclusion that it is time, after all, that smooths, buffs, etches and tumbles all of us over the years....and in the end each of us becomes the gem we were meant to be.

                                                                     Life is good.