Sandcastle Day-
Def: A day in which progress is swept away leaving no evidence that anything ever occurred.
I hate sandcastle days. Don't you? Even worse than "two steps forward, one step back," Sandcastle Days erase any indication of taking two steps in the first place. Maybe my pride is what causes me such grief over losing things that don't really matter:
"Quick! Take a picture of my sandcastle before the waves crash and the seagull-feather-flag is blown away!"
"Quick! Take a picture of Nathan before he dirties himself up again!"
"Quick! Take a picture of this meal before we eat it; before the dog is given the scraps; before the dishes are piled in the sink; before Nathan's drink is running off the table's edge; before..."
Try to get a snapshot so that I can prove what I've done here! Seriously, I must confess that I have vented to Nick, often through tears, that I worked all day but have nothing to show for it. But, I guess this frustration over sandcastles is a good reminder to spend my time constructing things that would be more 'snapshot worthy', if you will. Why stress over sandcastles? They are meant to come and go. So are meals. So are freshly-cleaned bodies. So are crumbs on the carpet. Easy come. Easy go. But, eternal snapshots, on the other hand: Hard to come by. Harder to forget.
I have some 'eternal snapshots.' I have images of people investing in building eternally significant castles. Sometimes their construction didn't look like much: My Grandma McNeil's prayer journal...or her Bible, full of thin pages covered with ink. Sometimes the castles seem more grandiose...think Billy Graham convention. But, the motives are what make the difference. If my ultimate goal is to build castles for THE kingdom (as opposed to for MY kingdom), then I will be able to stand on the shore and wave goodbye to my sandcastles...with a smile.
Nathan Paul
10/10/2005
Nia Madelynn
08/27/2007
Lottie Caroline
11/03/2008
Liam Calvin
03/25/2010
Nixon Kyle
10/16/2014
1 comment:
Hi! I am Carol's sister and try to read her family's blogs from time to time. I read yours today and I liked it. I just took a picture of our Jeep Grand Cherokee that we have to give up next week because our three years is up and we can't really afford the payments anyway. But it's just a car, right? Things are only sandcastles that we have to give up or leave behind. We give too much of our lives to these "things, experiences, etc.". Thanks for your post - as I took my picture of the car this morning, I was thinking the same sort of things that you expressed and I was surprised when you expressed it so well!
Ruthanne O'Brien
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