Last Saturday was my birthday.   My daughters whisked me off to an island near our home for a day of looking for sea glass and wine tasting.   Throughout the day I marveled at how God could work in my life.  I actually made it  through  bringing up two wildly outrageous and difficult daughters, and then have lived long enough to see the other side.    They designed such a perfect day.

Sea glass is a treasure to me; it is such an interesting hobby.    I have several old glass milk bottles and add my little bits as I can.   It is in my opinion, the ultimate repurpose.  What was once garbage, thirty years plus ago has become a treasure beyond measure.   There is a sea glass museum in California on Highway 1 near Fort Bragg, books on the topic, and nutty collectors like me that go nuts over a little pea shaped pieces of glass.   If an orange or grey piece is found then just faint, I’ve hit the mother lode. 

When I developed my symptoms due to my neurogenic bladder, from God knows what, later in life, I felt so broken.  All of a sudden I have this huge obstacle in my life that quite frankly I do not discuss openly.   It is like a plate shattering on the floor and telling the kids, “Stay away, get your shoes on and bring me the broom.  This needs to be swept up and thrown away."

Yet isn't a situational set back a bit like sea glass?  Like a cobalt blue medicine bottle – thought it was all that and more before it was used and thrown in the trash heap.  But guess what I found?   Between my toes there sat a cobalt blue pebble.  Happy Birthday, thank you.  Made my day!

Sounds a bit like that ole, beauty out of ashes thing, isn't life just like that! Just when you think you have it figured out…..