Gifts From Nature

Very often the most satisfying posessions are not the ones that cost a week's salary or acquired from a mail order catalog. These are treasures that might be found while walking in the country or along the seashore. Each time I stumble upon a perfectly formed seashell or weathered piece of driftwood, I feel as if I have won a prize. The perfection of a pine cone or a speckled bird egg is a testimony to the artistic talent of Mother Nature.

One of my fondest memories is beachcombing in the Bahamas. The abundance of beautiful shells was amazing. My hands were so full of shells that I could not pick one more up without dropping others. I had nothing to put them in and I was about to turn around and head back to my room, when there it was, another gift from nature. A broken coconut shell had found it's way to the shore about fifteen feet away from where I stood. I retrieved it and placed my shells into this quite appropriate vessel. It looked so beautiful that the shells remain in there to this day.