PORCH PONDERINGS

Sand

Another little item I wrote during our writing group:

The prompt was:
Describe an ordinary object - I forget how many minutes we had to work. Since it is small, probably five or ten.

It covers a large portion of the earth, but yet is tiny. It can fall through your hands. Sand, tiny grains, smaller than rice. It can be soft as powder - white. It can be coarse and rough as sandpaper - black. But most will be somewhere in between - a brown color.

But the real beauty is when you see sand under a magnifying glass. Then you see bits of shells, coral, glass, rocks tumbled by the sea. Polished and whittled down to microscopic pieces. Untold numbers of pieces. Beautiful when magnified.

It even mentions in the Bible that Abram's descendants would be as numerous as the sands in the sea and the stars in the sky, millions into billions. But who can count the grains of sand? Immeasurable and more being generated every second by every crash of the waves on the sea shores all over the earth.


*** After I wrote this, someone brought to my attention that we may actually be running out of sand on earth. Seems we are using it to build at a faster rate than it can be generated. Interesting thought. I hope I'm gone before I can't take anymore walks on the beach at sunset.