Vol. I, No. 3

20 June, 2003

Yesterday, while 'crawling' thru the emerald green sea towards the island, I spied something on the ripply sand.  The sea bottom looks like someone with a gigantic vaccuum cleaner has swept it every day (except for all those mysterious little 'hidey-holes' that crop up from time to time).  When the sea is clean, there is very little on this sand - just miles and miles of uninterrupted ... well, for want of a better word - SAND! 

Yesterday, there were little clumps of salt-water 'tumbleweeds.'  You folks who have WITNESSED tumbleweeds know their composition and how the wind can blow them around like dandelion tops.  These little sea critters are some kind of moss but they just "blow" around down there and sometimes get all covered with junk.  In addition to the little balls of fluff, I saw things that look like white shirt-buttons with a 3 inch 'thread' attached.  Some kind of mushroom?  Don't know - but they were surely unusual - and all over the place - even decorating the little tumbleweeds.

On the way back to the shore, I was again looking for the little buttons when I saw something MOVE on the bottom of the sea.  It was about 6 inches long, shaped like a lobster tail and was caramel colored with a big white stripe running around its body - bumblebee fashion.  I tried to get around in 'front' to see what kind of mouth it had - I was about 2.5 metres above it and you KNOW I do not have distance vision - so I  just couldn't see.  It looked like a little vaccuum cleaner, just busy as a bee on the sand.  All of a sudden, what I thought were fins came out from the sides of its body - and they were HUGE circles!  Guys, this thing looked like it had Mickey Mouse ears on its sides!  WHAT WAS IT?  I can't find it in any internet site of sea stuff.  I watched till I was afraid I'd be late for work if I didn't get outa the water (got a nice tan on my backside, too) and it never got in a hurry or scurried away - just sat there performing for my benefit.  OF COURSE I DID NOT HAVE MY CAMERA WITH ME!

Well, you know that today, I was on a quest to find this critter again!  (And NO I most certainly did NOT have the camera today either!)  I scoured the sand out to the island and back - but how do you EVER figure out where you are?  I have familiar landmarks - rocks that look like lion pillars next to the steps of big libraries - but most of the sea is just ... SAND!  I just could not find my little Kirby (that's a vaccuum cleaner, okay?) anywhere today. 

So, I got busy picking up shells.  Now since I'm wearing a snorkel mask, I have to exercise my toes when I find an interesting shell.  This is quite a circus act and I'm really happy that none of you are there to watch!  I picked up two beautiful little clam shells - purple on the inside - and then I saw a REALLY interesting one.  I reached down and grabbed it with my toes but it slipped away.  As I watched it fall, it turned belly up and then IMMEDIATELY flipped over and I saw many tiny little legs sticking out.  If a sea critter can yell, then this thing was yelling at me for disturbing its morning ablutions!

As I continued to watch, I saw many little snail shells and many others shaped like this little guy.  I am SURE it was not a guy, however, for even the Greek seashells have a routine -- just like the Greek housewives.  The older Greek women (and the stay-at-home young ones) are all busy with their morning cleaning, shaking, dusting, plumping, and pretty-ing up.  So, it seems are the little Greek sea critters.

I started thinking about us poor humans.  These little critters in the sea are FREE!  Why?  They don't have any 'stuff.'  The closer in to the beach I got, the filthier the water and sand became.  Plastic cups, straws, pieces of fruit and other trash litter the sea bottom as well as on the land.  Yet, just a few feet away, in pristine sand, lives the morning cleaning crew - happy, content and being exactly what they were created to be.

Now in light of what happened to me when I got to work today, you will surely recognize the irony in this next statement.  I drove home thinking about how complicated our lives are because we have so much stuff that we have to work to take care of!  If we giant land lovers could divest ourselves of some of our responsibilites, then when God says GO, we'd be able to move more quickly and easily.  (OH BOY, is this funny now!)

Well, this is the formerly embedded dishwasher, formerly embedded slot machine cashier, now not embedded or former anything - except snorkeler, signing off. 

Thanking you even more now for all those prayers in my behalf!

M