Turning The Tide

The sun shone brightly on the expanse of sandy beach that late July day on the outer banks of North Carolina. The waves rushed in and retreated only to be met by the onslaught of another. Wave after wave covered or uncovered greater or lesser portions of the shore as the tide grew higher and then receded. As the sand of low tide emerged from the foam, starfish lay helplessly strewn along the water’s edge. Those at the surf’s border would be engulfed readily as the next tide swelled over the waiting sand. There was something enchanting about the ebb and flow of the earth’s ocean on that waiting shore. Likewise, the tide of life that one experiences as day turns to night into week, then month, then year, creating experiences that leave us opportunities to be refreshed and renewed. Unlike the starfish, we are equipped with the ability to position ourselves along the shore or in the depths of life’s blessings. Time and experience are the great teachers that instruct us as to the consequences of the turns we take. When we choose to be educated in the school of gratitude by those adept teachers, we live to experience the joy of life’s tides.