Vacation in Charleston

Just got back and boy was it beautiful! Not enough time alone though with my hubby Todd since it was a working vacation for him, but great none the less... Charleston is a wonderful historical old town that has a ton of great and fun stuff to offer. A new friend Janet and I spent a lot of time walking the downtown area looking in neat shops, appreciating the architecture, we toured the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, we all did a 1 1/2 hours harbour tour on a boat with a narrator filling us in on the forts/attacks/homes/light houses, etc that was extremely interesting and beautiful. We also ate at some delicious restaurants of course - fresh seafood!
Janet and I ran into a couple from Maryville just walking down the street... he used to work for Mayfields in fact! We all took a drive around the barrier islands of Sullivan and Isle of Palm to check out all the scenery and saw people para sailing, kite surfing, and boogie boarding. Todd and I picked out one of the public beach access areas to return to the following day and had a blast when we did, but Todd got so sun burnt he had to drive all the way home the next day without a shirt on - he looked like a cooked lobster :o(
Its Sunday now and he still can hardly move well.
Why is it men don't listen to their wives when it comes to things like directions, or wearing sunscreen and the like?
Anyway, the day we went to the beach I was laying on a towel near the umbrella we planted in the sand reading a new book I picked up and i got sleepy. I dozed for a few minutes and when I woke up I was on my stomach facing away from the water. As I lay there just getting my wits about me before I went down the water to cool off I realized that as I gazed across to the black softside cooler we had that I could see many grains of sand blowing past me - between me and the cooler. As the wind speed ebbed and flowed the amounts did too. I turned my face towards the water after a few seconds and there was no sand blowing.
As I lay there I contemplated how this was so like us. I was literally laying on the line. The line between where the highest tides go and where they don't go - where the sand is flat, and where it begins to take shape. We walk this line sometimes in life.
We can find ourselves letting the waves and "stuff" beat us down to the point where we are flat, ungiving, unyielding. Todd tried to first plant the beach umbrella there but the hard sand would not cooperate... packed down so tightly that nothing can take root or even give support to something that was made to protect us.
Or we can let God carry us gently where he wants us like those grains of sand I watched flitter by, but not aimlessly. The sand was being purposefully carried along to help shape the dunes farther to my left. Where beautiful things grew like the flowers and sea grasses I took pictures of... We can be a place that yields and holds His beauty for all to see.
I woke up from a restful nap to see God's Glory revealed... that was a good day.
Marisa