Sea Glass

Maine’s beaches are quite unlike those in other parts of the country. We don’t have vast quantities of white sand, or expanses that attract high rise hotels, for the most part. Most of our beaches are moderately, to extremely, rocky. Many are hard to access. They are often deserted, except for the very hottest days of summer. With the exception of the tourist laden areas, most Maine beaches are extremely natural in their environment…meaning they’re not groomed, landscaped, seaweed removed or tidy. They do possess a wild beauty, but one has to be willing to look past the fallen down trees, the low tide sludge and the slippery green rocks to see that loveliness. These are beaches in the most rustic sense of the word. There is sand, there are rocks, there is saltwater and gentle waves. Occasionally, one will see something unexpected, like a seal bobbing just offshore, or a brightly painted lobster buoy that pulled free of its mooring. One might see dozens of mussels, already cracked open with their rainbow mother-of-pearl lining, or even a hermit crab, trying to find a more luxurious home. But, one shouldn’t expect striped cabanas, complete with beach side service, nor should one expect an easy hike down to the shore. Rustic elegance is the easiest term to describe the majority of Maine beach.

However, one of the great joys of walking along the beach in Maine is discovering beautiful pieces of Sea Glass. Like finely polished gems, these pieces can found nearly everywhere on the shore. Cast off from bottles from merchant vessels, from pleasure daysailors, from tourist trips or from fishing boats, from picnickers or just carelessness, these bits of glass bottles break up in the powerful surf and become mere bits of their former size and shape. When one finds a piece of sea glass, it's akin to finding a piece of gold....with the exception that no two pieces are alike. Some pieces are are very small, others still retain a curve of the bottle they once were. Polished over and over by the combination of salt water waves, sand, gravel and time in the right conditions, bits of rubbish turn into magnificent, light catching gems.

When my children were younger, finding sea glass was the primary mission for any adventure to the beach. Given that we live only a few hundred yards from the ocean, we amassed quite a collection on our adventures. We made stepping stones, containing these glittering jewels, we made jewelry, but most of all, we simply collected it...allowing it to fill a clear glass bowl with every muted color of the sea glass rainbow. We made up fantastical stories about particularly interesting pieces; how the deep blue glass was thrown off a luxury yacht in Bermuda, by people who were running from the law and needed to lighten up their boat to make a hasty escape. We imagined the green glass to be off a fishing boat, that hailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the fishermen were brave and dropped the bottle during a mighty and powerful storm. The clear glass became, to us, an image of a brother and a sister, just like my own, whose lunch bags fell overboard on their way home from a picnic on the islands just off shore...and how badly those children felt losing their bottles, but had hoped that when the bottles turned up, on the other side of Penobscot Bay, they'd be found by nice people.

The fact is, most of these bits of glass probably don't carry the romance we imbued them to have. Yet, the transformation from something as ordinary as a beer bottle into something so exquisite is far too dramatic to attribute to blind luck...at least for us. And yet, the metaphor regarding the creation of sea glass is too close to my own heart to dismiss. Sea glass is something that was once ordinary, common place and even garbage to be dumped. But, through the slow, painstaking refining process of salt, sand, waves, gravely ocean bottoms, tides and other natural forces, tranforms from waste to wonder. Isn't it fascinating that nature itself can take something so unsightly as a Budweiser bottle, and allow it rematerialize, miles away, as something beautiful? How often in our lives, do we, ourselves, feel that that Budweiser bottle, before its journey under the sea? We can feel useless, or empty or of little value. We can feel old, or tired, or past our prime. We may feel unwanted, unloved or rejected. We can feel the deep pit of anxiety, worry and frustration in our lives.

Yet, it's these very situations, these very feelings, that polish us. The sadness, the grief, the loneliness and the feelings of uncertainty that can provide the salt water, the gravely sea bottom, the waves, the tidal forces and the sand to work on our souls...to sandpaper away all the waste, the top layer of superficial concerns and the unnecessary priorties in our lives. The jewels of our spirits that are left behind, throughout the whole painstaking polishing process may be very different than what we started out as. We may find that our selfishness gives way to giving, that our anxiety gives way to patience and that our grief turns into empathy. The refining, the polishing, the rubbing off of dirt is not an easy process. It can be heart breaking and life upending. But, it can also be heart building and life affirming, as well. What we will be left with will, undoubtedly, be far more beautiful than the empty vessels we began our journey with.

So, during your next walk on the beach, take time to look down and see if you can spot some sea glass. More importantly, see if you can look within your own heart to find where you have already been polished.