I spent a few hours one morning this summer walking a beach in the Caribbean. One of the island locals told me it was the best beach on the island to find “sea glass.”

Sea glass is the pieces of glass, remnants of glass bottles that have been discarded in the ocean and over time found their way to a seashore. These broken shards of glass get tumbled in the salt water, rubbed by the sand, and eventually become a smooth frosted piece of art.

This ocean art comes in a few colors – green the most popular (former wine, soda, and food bottles), brown (beer and medicine bottles), clear (old soda bottles), the rare blue glass (old Vicks Vapor Rub bottles), and the very rare black (usually antique bottles).

As I walked the beach looking intently in the sand and rocks that twice daily are pushed around by the tide, As I would began to spot disruptions in the pattern, a different color would jump out. My little treasure hunt landed me a pocket full of beautiful sand and water-blasted frosty glass in all shapes, various sizes, and every color.

I found a few with jagged edges still shining brightly, a clear indication this piece of glass was new to the ocean art process. It had not yet experienced the tumbling and turning of months or years in the water and sand.

I couldn’t help but begin to draw the parallels of each piece of humanity being its own beautiful piece of sea glass. We start the journey of life all shiny, unbroken, and living out a specific function.

Then something happens and we get broken, or discarded, or our long-held role is no longer needed. Into the big brutal sea we go.

The churning begins. The tumbling. The sand is so abrasive. The salt dries and is like sandpaper on our soul. Little by little we lose our shine. We think we are done. We feel like a useless and discarded piece of waste.

But there is work being done in all the pain. The tumbling is smoothing out our jagged edges. It’s making us softer, smoother, easier to handle. It’s making us into a piece of art.

Feel like you are up against the sandy bottom? Can’t get free from the constant beating surf that seems to be taking all the life, all the shiny out of you? Participate with the process. Let it do its’ work. Don’t fight it. Learn to roll with it. Let it push you into a new direction. You are not a bottle anymore. You are a new work of art. Enjoy your new beauty. You have earned it!