September 29, 2006

The Seashells Are Listening

Ripcurl Wave pounding the shore. Seal Beach CA

So, tremble,
if you must,
for the dust,
is still breathing...
and the trees,
are just the leaves,
on a big breathing globe.
And there's life
in the rocks
and the seashells
are listening
to the sounds
of the sands
as it rests
on its way...

M. Potash 1966

…And the Seashells are listening


Written at the Long Beach Airport Marriott
September 24, 2006

We spent our free time this week while in California at places that meant a lot to me as I was growing up. I had time to visit with some significant people that I may never see again in this life that effected my destiny.

But today I write about a place that is so significant to my story that I really cant tell the story with out it. For it is a place of two salvations and two rebirths. A place where I was dedicated to God and a place where God spoke to me and I answered His call to follow Him where ever He leads.

I am speaking of Seal Beach, California. A strip of gold flecked sand wedged between the Port of Long Beach and the Long Beach Naval Weapons Station . Surrounded by breakwater, and dissected by a lovely peir, It is a delightful spot for sunning and bathing, and for novice surfers and body boarders to practice their craft. Much of the year the tides are benign and peaceful. But in the spring and fall when the wind and the moon balance in such a way the riptide comes and will pull you under and out to sea in a blink if you are not a strong swimmer…

I have spent many many days here. Many experiences with many people, Woody being the latest, that were important to me. I would take “mental health days” to come and just be here soaking up the peaceful energy that flows from the sea. The waves rush in and rush out in a song… leaving seashells and debris behind like a gift. Today was no different and I heard for the first time in a long time in my mind that song that I put at the beginning of this post… the sea breathing in and breathing out in a song of life that goes to the very center of my soul. I miss the ocean more than any other thing that I have left behind in my journey and life in Arkansas.

I wrote the story of my two rebirths in the post “O to Grace, How Great a Debtor.” How in Sept of 1964, I wandered out into the sparkling surf and was pulled out to sea while my mother passively watched, thinking that if she left Steve a sturdy 18 month old who would walk after her into the surf, she would lose both of her children. All she felt she could do was to call out to me “ swim! Swim!” Like that was going to help me any…I was eventually swept ashore safe and sound…a miracle considering the tidal pull and the rock strewn coastline

Eighteen years ago, on September 29, 1988, I was walking on this same beach in a fog, both literally and mentally, and a voice from without spoke to me and I received the direction and comfort that I needed. I accepted the call of God that day to surrender my life totally to Him. Eighteen years later, my only regret is not giving more and more of myself to Him…

And so today as I treaded my way down the sands, much heavier and stiffer than I was then, reveling in the sparkling shimmer of the surf and the cool breeze… I could only give thanks and praise to God himself who made the sun and the sand, and the joy that suffused my entire being. I felt alive, really alive and full of gladness. When I left those sands that fateful day,eighteen years ago, I couldn’t have envisioned what God had in store for me.

And I prayed… I know that perhaps I will not be passing this way for a very long time, maybe never again. As I sit in this lovely patio, I can hear the scream of a jet engine as it pulls out onto the tarmack a few hundred yards away...It beckons me onward to new adventures and in faith love and trust, I have only to believe and follow Him...


Wave comming into the Second Sink, Seal Beach CA