I was walking along the beach yesterday picking up shells. I was looking for nice colors and shapes so that I can experiment with my camera and photo editing software. Now, this old couple was walking by as I was examining a broken orange shell. The old man took the shell out of my hand and threw it back into the ocean. The old woman then gave me 2 perfect shells from her collection. Old man says, “That’s more like it!” And they walk on down the beach.

I was just shocked. It had happened so fast that the old folks were walking away by the time it registered in my brain that a total stranger had snatched something out of my hand. Yeah, I’m sure he meant no harm, etc.–but damn!

Sometimes broken things are beautiful.