Seashells and Sand Dollars: Inspiration From the Beach - How to Face Adversity and Offer Hope

Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal. ~ Jerome Fleishman

I just spent a week at the seashore, watching waves pound the beach, dragging sand away from its quiet place on the shore and into the bigger ocean. If I were a grain of sand, I'd much rather lie in the sun: peaceful, un-battered, with a life of quiet tranquility. I'd rather not face the waves of adversity, tumbled by the tumult of ebb and flow, uncertain of my outcome.

Yet the ocean, like life, gives back, even as it takes. I found a sand dollar amid the flotsam at water's edge. A tad imperfect, not bleached-white but dull gray; all the more precious because it survived the surf to settle at my feet - an unexpected gift.

As we strolled along, others were picking up seashells, tossing aside those that were chipped, broken and imperfect. I'd always done the same thing myself. But then I started to notice the shards. They were just as beautiful, perhaps more so. Uniquely shaped, beaten but not destroyed; a testament to the tenacity of life and survival - even in the wearing ocean. My thoughts wandered with my steps...

A friend's daughter who lost a child, and another whose husband died unexpectedly. Both too young.

A conversation with a Korean veteran who lived a far different experience from our MASH-inspired perception of war. Thank you, sir, for your service. (And thank you to all veterans, wherever you served.)

A wealthy businessman who struggles with the realities of a 29-year-old son with ALS. The son may not see his 30th birthday. And no amount of money can change that...

Dozens of people, young and old, in wheel chairs and scooters on the boardwalk, enjoying sunshine and surf despite their handicaps.

Even a dog rally, where two of the stars were Pitt Bulls with missing legs. Most of us would say, "How sad." Yet they were active and loving, squirming with joy when people stopped to pet them.

I began to pick up those broken shells, seeing a different perspective that others overlooked. "See these colors." "Ooh, look at these - how beautiful!" And a few steps further, "Feel this one," as I rubbed my thumb back and forth across its smooth surface, comforting like a worry stone.

We are like those seashells. We don't get the option to stay on the beach, comfortable, warm and unaffected by the ebb and flow of life. Instead we must face the surf, overcome the riptides of calamity and disaster to offer value and beauty to those whose paths cross ours.

Some of us seem to have 'perfect' lives, yet we've been through the surf of situations and circumstances that tossed us about and left our emotions behind with the tide.

Some of us are battered by life, dull and chipped like that sand dollar. We've lost the polish of lovingkindness - replaced with the grayness of anger, bitterness and disappointment, grief and regret.

Others are broken - eroded physically, mentally, emotionally or financially. Our lives, our 'shells', are no longer what we had expected. We've been washed ashore by waves of time and circumstance. We wait, broken and alone, for someone to pick us up, dust off the grit and remind us of our innate value and beauty.

I'm sure we'd all rather be like seashells in the Beach Store: perfect, polished, costly. But Life's tides don't give us that option.

The next time you see people or circumstances that aren't what you want or expect, remember the lesson of the shells. They were all perfect once. Yet, even battered and broken, they add to the ambience that is Life. Every seashell - if it could talk, would tell you a story of joy and sorrow, ebb and flow.

We forget too often that our experiences are not unique. The Bible reminds us the tests and trials of life are 'common to man' (I Cor. 10:13). Growth and decay, trial and circumstance, happiness and disappointment are all part of the tide called Life. Here are three simple keys to help you face your own adversities and offer hope to others.

Empathize. When you meet someone who seems storm-tossed and lonely, remember the sand dollar, chipped and gray, but special nonetheless. Share your compassion and understanding.

Appreciate. Be grateful when the ocean of Life gives you time on the beach. Welcome every opportunity for sunshine and blessing. Share your blessings with others.

Connect. No matter where they are - or why, people need connection. Just like those fragments of seashells, you can 'pick them up' with smiles, kind words and hugs.

That Korean veteran showed me a photo of he and his wife, now deceased. Decades ago, they were young and beautiful - far removed from the stubbly elder gentleman I know now. My own life certainly didn't turn out as I'd expected. Yours probably didn't either. And that is true for all of us. But just like those seashells, we've survived. That is the real inspiration from the beach.

For more information on developing life skills, better relationships, and becoming the best YOU possible, visit http://www.seebecksolutions.com/ and sign up to receive your FREE subscription to "What Matters Most", a weekly ezine of inspiration, motivation and humor from a Christian perspective.

Ruth Seebeck has built a reputation over the last three decades as a life-skills coach, mentor, Christian counselor and friend. She is a business owner, author, community volunteer and event coordinator whose passion is helping others overcome life's challenges.

Steve Jobs - Vision in Life, Inspiration in Death

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Steve Jobs has finally lost his battle with cancer, and lovers of computing and technology will mourn his loss. While there will no doubt be many eulogies and tributes to his achievements, I would like to offer a more spiritual perspective on this inspirational man.

For years we were privileged to see a man who was ahead of his time in vision, in originality and innovation: always taking the lead, while others could only play catch-up. A man who had an unprecedented ability to communicate and inspire others with that vision. A man who knew what we wanted before we did ourselves. Someone who, with his slick and yet informal style, had that special ability to reach the full spectrum of people. A genius? Probably!

However, this is not all that defines the man. In his last year we saw someone who, in the face of the greatest adversity, became even more. Although clearly failing physically, we saw an even brighter light and enthusiasm shining though. We saw dignity, responsibility, courage and a renewed delight in his vision.

How would you define a Spiritual Master? Would you say a Guru or Prophet? In the past perhaps we would have been limited by these concepts. Nowadays, however, the divisions and definitions of the past are blurring as never before. The Master of the 21st century can be from any walk of life. A true Spiritual Master is the person who speaks from the heart, who is connected to something higher than the norm, and who aspires to communicate that energy and joy to the rest of us. They give us a glimpse of something more and illuminate our lives with it. If this is today's definition of a Spiritual Master, then I believe Steve Jobs was exactly that.

Ask yourself, what will you do when you look in the mirror and see the face of death looking back at you. That is the moment when you learn who you truly are. Will you be a victim, locked in your own fear, who relinquishes your power and just diminishes? Will you find courage and dignity to hold your own to the end? Or, will you be one of those rare individuals who discovers even more within themselves. These people see their impending death, and find a renewed strength and clarity. Far from diminishing, they grow and blossom as the end approaches.

The knowledge of your own impending death has a bitter-sweet gift: the sharpest shift in perspective that anyone can ever experience. Immediately, the trivial evaporates, and only the profound remains. At that moment, you see the stark truth of your life's achievements. That is when you know whether anything you have done actually matters.

Can you continue your life's work, giving it that new razor-sharp perspective and making every moment count as never before? Those who can, not only live every second given to them to the full, but do so with such passion for life and with such focus, that we cannot fail to be uplifted by their example. We saw this in Steve Jobs.

Has Steve Jobs changed our lives for the better? On the material level, undoubtedly he has. The first decade of the 21st century has been transformed as a direct result of this man. However, what shines through Steve Jobs' life and work is far more than this. He left a spiritual mark on this planet too, even if he himself was unaware of it. He may not have been Mother Theresa, but still, he lifted us up and inspired us. He enhanced our lives, and he leaves the world a better place.

What on earth would he think of my comments? Would he laugh? Would he dismiss them? I could not possibly say. I just hope he realised how much joy he brought into the world with his vision, his imagination and his infectious enthusiasm: the very best of legacies.

I hope people will be able to say half as much of me.

Dr Anne Whitehouse studied at Cambridge University and had a scientific career before ME forced her to re-evaluate her life and change direction. She is now a speaker, transformational therapist and author of You Are The Alchemist - Transform Your Life. Do you want to inspire others with your life? Would you like to help others by being an example of hope? Would you like your suffering to have some real meaning? If you are stuck in fear and powerlessness, you can stay where you are, or you can use it to turn your life into an inspiration. Let me show you how you can do this for yourself. Go to http://www.thealchemydr.com/ to find out how.

The Reality of Design Inspiration

The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative.
The quality of having been so stimulated, esp. when evident in something.
A person or thing that stimulates in this way.
A sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea.
The divine influence believed to have led to the writing of the Bible.
I'd like to challenge the idea of inspiration as stated above. This is how I would define inspiration:
Inspiration
An edge piece of a puzzle.
Think about how many puzzles you have started, got 90% of the edge work done, and then never touched again? I honestly could count on one hand how many I actually got past that point and I have a feeling the same is true for most people. Why is this true? We get all the outer pieces together because they are easy to sort out, it takes little time to pull out all the pieces with flat sides. Then we can fit them together because we can distinctly see the edge of the puzzle on the box.
So why do we stop when we get the edge nearly done? Because we know the next step is going to take some commitment and all we have is an outline. All the hard parts start to look like blobs of color or texture and our brains can't sort it out.
Missing Pieces
More often than not this is what inspiration does. We see people who create innovative products and we say "What a stroke of brilliance!" or we see a beautiful work and we think "They are so talented!". Then we think "I wish I could do that", we start to arrange what we know (the edge pieces) about it. As we piece it together we start to run into problems and unknowns (Ambiguous blobs of color or texture), if we hit enough of these we start to get doubt. Doubt turns into dismay, and eventually we tell ourselves "I'll never be able to do that".
Obviously this doesn't happen every time, so what about the times that we push through and finish the entire puzzle? What is different about those times? In my opinion there are two things missing and these are: Risk and Failures. I've come up with a simple formula which I think explains the level of success anyone will have at any given task.
(Inspiration + Risk) x Failures = Level of Success
So it all starts at inspiration, it is necessary to have inspiration to accomplish anything. With inspiration you must understand and accept the risks, the later is more important than the former. Nothing worth doing is without risks but truly accepting what may happen and doing it anyways is the ultimate goal.
This is when we reach failures, for every failure you make there is a much higher chance you will succeed the next time you do that thing. This is why I love to sketch my ideas to the point of exhaustion. I've found that the more times I try and fail in rapid succession the faster I can get to the part where I can succeed! It's incredible! The faster you fail the faster you succeed!
Make a Change
This silly equation aside the main thing I wanted to address is that Inspiration is nothing without Risk and Failure. So challenge yourself to finish the inside of the puzzle. Think of one thing you've always wanted to accomplish and go do it! You will probably fail, but then you should just do it again! Then you should come back here and share what you did with me because I would love to hear your stories.