Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Most of the time when we think of beaches, we think of white sands, stretched endlessly to the horizon, with waves crashing or gently lapping the shore, people running about or stretched out on towels catching those warming rays of sunshine. We don't generally consider much about what lies beneath our feet: the composition, the grinding processes that encompass the waves and rock. Every now and again, we get a chance to consider, look a bit closer, a bit deeper, and gain perspective on the things we take for granted.

We started out our day by heading to a beach that's a bit different from the many visited before. Instead of sand, it was composed of what you see here: bits of broken shell, coral, detritus from any number of organic things. Underfoot, it felt different, like stepping on rounded Lego, the shifting coral and shell locking into each other like a puzzle, firm yet just unstable enough to give the feeling of sand.

Everywhere you looked, there were these oceanic cabochons, worn smooth by time and water.

When you got down to the water's edge, you could look through the crystalline sea at a tapestry of these bits and pieces, the clarity of the water acting as a rippled magnifying glass. Water added that extra bit of texture to each piece, highlighting incredible yellows, reds, oranges, beiges, whites, and blacks to the eye, while simultaneously beckoning you in to its embrace. The water was cool, not cold, to the touch and, looking around, there were children of all ages snorkeling in wetsuits, adults in slightly less encumbered clothing, and babies happily splashing about.

We don't often get the chance to have our perspectives changed about places that we take for granted. A beach is just sand, regardless of colour...right?

A million years from now, this coral will be ground to dust, the waves, the air, and friction working tirelessly to achieve a natural end. It'll be nothing more than grains, miniscule offerings to Poseidon, and resembling what we've always assumed to be a beach. But in these intervening millenia, we have an opportunity to see things a bit differently. We get the opportunity to marvel at what once was and is. We get to see a "before" state, feel the different textures in our hands and underfoot, and enjoy the beauty of transition.

Dear souls, a beach is what we make it. It can be sand, coral, rock, or mud. It can be composed of silica, volcanic rock, dead organisms, and whatever else we can possible dream of. I'd suggest that we're so used to the ordinary that, when the extraordinary appears, it almost seems too fanciful, too imaginary, too...overwhelming to our senses. Like coral, held in hand, captured under crystalline waters, somewhere on the west coast of Ireland.

Today, our stories will continue on. The grinding will continue, the journeys will keep pressing on. We'll wake, we'll eat, we'll sleep in our endless dance with eternity and, like any other ordinary day, we'll take for granted the roads we drive, the sidewalks we'll walk on, the carpets, wooden floors, the escarpments of this place and that.

What we have the opportunity to do, in whatever way we can muster, is to look below the surface a bit more. Really understand the composition of these "things" that we take for granted. It doesn't mean that we stop on the highway to look at the road surface (as fascinating as that may be) but it may mean taking a road less traveled and stopping to breathe. Taking in the blasé and finding a story of its creation.?In whatever way you can, find the extraordinary from the ordinary and let that delight your soul.

May it ever be so.

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