Monday, January 26, 2009

wild (weird?) and wonderful...

On my recent trip to the Central coast of California, we stopped at one of my very favorite places--a little town called Cambria. Actually, my favorite part of Cambria is Moonstone Beach. It is a wonderful stretch of beach with continuous wave song and several miles of boardwalk as well as the beach itself to walk on. The sand is not really even sand but bazillions (I don't know a higher number!) of teeny tiny stones. The beach has been a rock collector's, treasure hunter's dream for me! Most of the stones are rounded and smooth, unlike any other place I've found, and there are quite wonderful colors --but with a predominance of glorious jade-green colored stones.

This time, however, was quite different. As with most beaches, the beach itself can change drastically from visit to visit --shape, height of tide, condition of the beach. This time the great areas of larger stones which usually keep me occupied for hours (as I sit in the middle of a pile and dig through the layers looking for special and unique stones) were not there. The beach was mostly just the teeny tiny "sand" stones.

We did, however, get to see something a bit wild and weird and, I thought, quite wonderful...

Hmmmmm... Check these out! There were many, many of these little objects strewn across the beach right at the water line where the waves had dropped them.
Animal? Vegetable? Mineral? The sun was striking them so that they appeared to be glowing from within. They were quite beautiful, and I liked to imagine that they were many glowing moonstones on the beach.

But, no... Mineral, they were not. And, upon closer look and a bit of curious poking, I determined that neither were they Vegetable...

I had seen these things before, but not in such abundance. They actually are Animal... a type of jellyfish. They do not have tentacles, and I believe they are a much less developed jelly (a lower life form) than what we're used to seeing.
If you poke them (which, I, of course, HAD to do!), they are very firm, like a piece of hard but pliable rubber. They're not gooey or slimey but smooth and cool. And, if you look closely at them, they've got lovely striations running through them... (the following two and the flower one you can double click on and look at them up really close! they're really quite amazing!!)

(you can also see what I was talking about in regards to the "sand" on this beach)

I think the one below looks sort of like a seashell in shape...

And this one was very cool! It was very 3dimensional and looked sort of like a big blobby bulbous flower of some sort! It even has a few streaks of a pinkish-purple color running through it. (unfortunately, Blogger is turning some of my photos; this one and the following one are sideways)

For all you Heart lovers and seekers, check this out... (imagine it turned 90degrees counter clockwise!)....


And the final one ... obviously a treasure just for ME!!.... (ok, I'll share it with you!)


God has such a great sense of humor, don't you think?! Not only does He create such wild and weird stuff, He dredges it up from the deep, tosses it onto the beach, and gives us a little art show with it! And wraps it all up with LOVE.... Ah, He does delight my heart...

5 comments:

  1. Okay, that is just too cool for words!!!

    I love it!!! I love how Daddy took away the ordinary and gave you a new "jewel" to shimmer, shine, and declare His love for you! And did you see how wondrously unique He declared His love to be? I've never seen jellies like that, and I've done some study on jellies.

    But the thing I think is so cool is what it says:
    See my love.
    See how it does not break, but it will bend.
    See how others' love can hurt, but mine doesn't.
    See how mine shines.
    See how mine is so very deep, and yet, I pull it out and who it to you obviously so you don't miss it.
    See how simple it is.
    And I have a special love just for you, a special language just for you, special words just for you.
    And I'm putting it out here for all to see...especially you!

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  2. Hey, this is such a good one! I thought the 2nd last one looks like a Heart too. =)

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  3. I'm going to have to visit California some day...

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  4. Hi Sharilyn,

    Those are just amazing images! Thanks for sharing them and your message.

    Best wishes,

    Skeeter

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  5. thanks, y'all! :) and, billy, i MUST see those blue ridge mtns in all their glory!!

    and, jerri...wow. thank you so very much for those words! i love your comment!! what a delight! you brought such a smile to my heart! i will hold your words close in my mind and heart.

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