sand dollars

The missing piece

When the waves take these frágil shells and sand dollars, nothing really prepares them for the hard crashing that comes right before the end of their ride.

Never knowing what happens through it all, they find themselves missing some part of their original structures. Once they were one solid piece, and nothing seem to be able to destroy them, yet the end ride brings them to a rough number of tumbles, hitting different places, other shells, rocks, sand bottom... something happens and the end is just this piece we are now. Where is the other half, or the other pieces? Was it really our other half? or perhaps is only a quarter? 

I went for a walk at the beach and my eye was attracted by this white pieces, semi round shapes missing a percentage of their original structure, and I just couldn’t help to think of you. Separations are always hard. How hard most be to try in figure out which part was really us and which is missing. How is that we become this pieces... our structure once together has been shattered by the waves of life. And I don’t think about it as a tragic end but rather as a good reminder that we are still here. No matter how small we may feel, this feeling is just temporary because in reality we are still whole, this is just what the outside sees. 

Perhaps when we build a life together we forget that there is an outer shell created by putting together a new structure over our whole self. We build together something that seems incredibly strong yet, we can never know when the fractures begin because there are two parts to this new whole. When it breaks we find ourself again at the beach in pieces... it is only a matter of time for us to realize that this piece is what is left of what we put into that structure. And in time will help us to rebuilt the new whole we will be by ourselves or with others, but with a stronger first piece that carries experience, and hopefully wisdom.

Until then we can only look at what was left at the beach and try to begin all over again.