Touching something tender

Step Softly 

A sea washed, sun bleached tree truck becomes a lounge chair in the midafternoon. A nippy tinge in the air is the reminder that holidays are over, autumn is on the way. The wind touches anything out in the open, the sea breaths rhythmically upon the shore.

Sitting crossed legged on this bleached trunk, holding thoughts, trying, unsuccessfully, to be still inwardly. The horizon is hazy but the immediate view is the pebbles in very close proximity – just beneath my feet.

Pebbles on the beach snuggled together, touching, overlapping, some overshadowing those of lesser size. Layer upon layer, varieties of colour and shape, layers that go deeper than the eye can see. As the sea exhales upon the shore with every incoming and outgoing tide, it rearranges the setting of these small stones.

Pebbles that I have walked across, barely noticing, hearing their shifting and grinding against each other beneath my feet. How many people have I “walked over” never seeing their inimitable loveliness and the depths of their heart? An enormous wasp gently and tenderly negotiates his way over the stones, more aware of their texture than I, not treading them into the ground as my weight does. I envy his ability to softly wend his way, lightly, slowly, and methodically.

Abba forgive me for rushing over others in the rush to fill the spaces within me. Forgive me for not letting You be my eyes to everything unique around me.
“Let your gentleness be evident to all.” Phil 4:5
“But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us …” Titus 3:4

Logs, weathered, peeling, shifted by the waves that they cannot resist. Or are they simply free to move when the tides move in and then retreat every day?