We look down, shuffling through life.
Nature constantly sends us
powerful messages of hope and transformation,
if we would just look up.

Sally Scobey

Beaches are such places of creativity and rejuvenation! As I walked many beaches over the years, images and thoughts of inspiration would come to me that I finally preserved. I believe I was in a space to receive beautiful concepts as if they were gifts, not gifts for me to keep, but to share.

Once I committed to the project, it took five years to capture the pictures that spoke to my heart. Each photo is accompanied by the life lesson it illustrates. A small, but surprisingly powerful book, it can serve as a gift to inspire a loved one or a souvenir of your own visit to the seashore, your personal reminder of the loveliness of nature and the messages it has to give us.

I followed the process used in the 1986 classic “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum. The words are for the most part sparse, rigorously simple; I used the pictures to tell the true meaning.

It’s hard to explain what happened, almost as if images presented themselves for me to photograph and beautiful thoughts relating to those images came magically to mind. The whole process has been a spiritual experience. I somehow tapped into the Creator’s nature, something far greater than myself, and I will be forever grateful.

This little book is also an act of deep appreciation for the beaches of the world. I would walk Waikiki, Biloxi, San Juan and other shores while on speaking tours to find peace before a presentation. But it was a blissful forty years walking the sands of Sanibel Island and other Gulf beaches during family vacations that gave me the most inspiration.

I always took a shell, or two, or dozens, home as reminders of the peace I found there, the rhythm of the waves settling my soul. At last I realized I took back much more than shells and memories. Nature has wonderful signs to lead the way to healthy thought. What I observed over those years during my shore walks was so inspiring I had to pass it all along to you.