pearl in the oyster

I went to the beach this week with my kids, a last rendezvous before school starts. I had received a whollop of bad news on Wednesday morning, had to spend the day in meetings where I wasn't really mentally there, and then got to get away...

At the beach, my kids and I spun around and around and around with our arms outstretched in the surf until we were dizzy and I said that we were spinning all our cares away. I did cartwheels in the surf. Then we all laid down on our tummies and let the surf and the washed up sargassum seaweed wash over us. Sam had a blast looking for crabs and shrimp in the sargassum. He's such a little explorer. My brilliant 10-year old daughter astounded me by saying "Life is like an oyster. You have to get through all the yucky stuff and inside there is a little pearl." It brought tears to my eyes. I asked her where she heard that and she said it was inside her head. There is an Alanis song that says "Me, whose seen life as an oyster...". For my 10 year old to have this wisdom without anyone telling her, even if she heard the song and figured it out astounds me. Especially because she put it in a way that even I hadn't gotten the message from the song quite that way.

Lessons I learned recently:
(1) If it seems too good to be true, it is.
(2) Listen to your inner voice, but even better follow it. Listen to your inner voice above the part of you that wants to believe in love and the integrity of other people.