Message In A Bottle

I've had this wonderful sea glass for some time.

I have had it in a clear glass vase on my window sill to admire

and it has been other places, too.

Sea glass is glass that has been dumped into the ocean along the coasts.

I know that is not environmentally friendly, or something like that.

When it was first dumped, it was probably the whole container. Perhaps a brown bottle, a white nozema jar (remember those?), maybe a milk bottle or a "bitters" bottle, and perhaps even some "hooch" bottles. What ever they were, they were no longer needed for day - to - day living, and were, therefore, dumped.

Old farms usually have a place where garbage was burned and sometimes you run across old bottles. These were just dumped into the ocean.

As time passed, the sharp edges of the glass worn down and the glass washed up on the beach. 

Notice the sharp edges on the left and the worn edges on the right.

Some beaches are prized for the sea glass that is found there. Among those are the glass beach in Kauai and the northern coast town of Fort Bragg.

This glass is from these places.

To give an idea of the small pieces here, I laid a penny into the mix.

Well, I needed to separate colors if I was going to get a layered effect.

Ahem, that took some time...

I also wanted a "message to put into the bottle.

I used some Starbucks glass containers and another small container to layer the glass to view.

I used tweezers to put the message in after I had a few layers

I used some craft paint (leftover from many years ago) to give the tops another life.

I blew on them to dry them, you don't have to do this, but I was impatient.

I filled those little jars right up to the brim and then put the lid on...

Not the best picture from not the best photographer.

While I was doing the mundane job of separating the colors, it made me think of the way we have trials in our lives that hurt us like sharp glass does. Over time, the Lord, in His mercy, softens the edges to help us bear them. They are still there in our life, but we don't feel the sharp hurt like we did at first.

And, that is why I wanted to remind myself to have "Faith", to "Believe", and to "Dream".

Linking to

Shabby Creek Cottage - Transformation Thursday