BE

 

“Stop looking and you might find something,” he said.

“O.K., I will,” I look up to see the ignored wonder all around me; the infinite expanse of sea, the subtle lapping of little waves arriving ashore and the seagulls stalking me for a crumb. None of these had registered because I was so bent on finding a piece of sea-glass in the dawn flotsam. I had been looking all week and found shark’s teeth and whole shells, but no glass. When you’re the first one out, you stand a better chance of locating the best of the beach-combing, not to mention experiencing the chromatic return of that solar scoundrel.

These gems of the discarded, having been pummeled into recycled treasure, are easily spotted because of their unique coloring. I was so obsessed, I missed the sunrise. I decided to seek no more for what I thought I needed to find, but instead to accept whatever came my way. Walking a mere five feet toward the cooling water where I intended to wade, I jumped. My foot smarted as I stepped on something pointed. You guessed it, a piece of sea-glass. That wasn’t the miracle of this morning though.

When I washed the sand from the glass and held it up to the sun, these two letters winked back at me laughing…BE. True story.

Words copyright by Mar Startari, 2019
Bear Island, NC. Photograph taken by Mar Startari, 2016

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