Priceless Dollars!

Every strip of beach is a neutral ground, a giant’s highway, where you have the most treasures washed up.

Henry David Thoreau

Thinking of the coast today and many walks along various west coast sandy beaches. Sand dollars have often been a special part of those strolls. Walks when I got up early while my family was still sleeping and ambled alone on a beach at low tide. Enjoying the sound of the surf while collecting the beautiful and delicate skeletons of sand dollars. Sometimes stuffing my pockets so full with unbroken treasures that I needed to stop to return many to the sea or shore. Then there were times when my children were with me, excitedly exclaiming over each and every new sand dollar discovery…delighting in the uniqueness of each sand dollar…how big or tiny or white or dark or unusual! Other days, walking alongside friends who were discovering sand dollars for the first time and were just as gleeful as children!

Often, my kids and I would collect sand dollars with great intentions of making Christmas ornaments or otherwise displaying them indoors. Yet, in general, the sand dollars would sit outside, getting bleached by the sun with nary a craft made from them. I would occasionally need to move items in my yard, and I would notice them again, now bleached white and covered in dust…yet still making me smile as I thought of the walks and adventures that they represented. Come to think of it, I still have some on the side of my house. Maybe I’ll make them into Christmas ornaments this year (hmmm…probably not going to happen).

As the years have gone by, I no longer avidly collect them, but I still pick up a sand dollar or two when I am visiting the coast with family or friends. Some memories may never hold monetary value but are priceless in terms of joy.  May a sand dollar, sea shell, rock or pebble, or dried flower or leaf bring you a priceless memory!