beach

A Sea of Glass

The waves pound against the jagged rocks. White foam slowly fades with each pop of a salty bubble. As the tide pulls away the shore sparkles a multi-color glitter of sea glass. This is Glass Beach.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I stopped here on our way through the winding road of Highway 1, up the coast of California. We stopped to breathe in the salty air and observe the sea glass. The wind was blowing a chill over us while the morning sun shot down warmth. The rays from the sun also shot through the prisms of the sea glass, refracting and reflecting light.

[pullquote]The wind was blowing a chill over us while the morning sun shot down warmth.[/pullquote]

What is fascinating about this particular beach is that these gems of glass came from trash. This beach used to be a dumping ground from around 1906 – 1967. Locals even called it “The Dumps”. Everything from cars to batteries to glass bottles and appliances were pushed over the cliffs into the sea. Over the years, what was biodegradable degraded. Metal was scavenged and sold or used in art. All that remains from this abuse is beautiful sea glass. The rough sea tumbled the discarded broken glass into a stunning rainbow of treasures.

Through our leisure walk over the dunes and sea glass admiration, it occurred to me the irony of this place: Beautiful sand harvested and turned into glass only to be dumped as trash at the very spot it came from, then turned into sea glass by the natural elements. A circle of life. Mother Nature comes through again…