Beaches

Who doesn’t love a scenic view of a beach? I do, but I’ve often found myself drawn to views that shared scattered rocks and boulders. Never understood why this drew me in, but it seemed to bring attention to shifting shadows and subtle changes in each moment I’d view the same scene. The stones seemed to welcome something different for me.

While watching a show I had to pause for a moment as the boulders in the beach screamed “pay attention!” There’s a lesson in this.

My mind immediately thought of the poem by Robert Frost the Road Less Traveled. The stones represented obstacles and diversions. They were scattered without rhyme or reason and yet with specific purpose. I felt like God was telling me sand beneath bare feet feels amazing, yet a small pebble in the shoe is irritating. In life diversions may get in our way, like some of the beach rocks, we can walk around them or over them. We can sit and rest upon them and sometimes build with them.

The rocks or boulders in life aren’t always meant to detour us but may actually serve purposes of protection we don’t see. The rocks at beach edge often promote sea life and invite creatures to nest, feed, and expand, something we won’t always find on sandy beaches.

As I reflected upon these prayerful thoughts, I was prompted to turn to ChatGPT to learn more scientific aspects of the differences. I’m sharing them with you as you may be just as unaware as I was.

Sandy beaches

On a sandy beach, the wave energy is spread across millions of tiny grains of sand.

• Sand shifts easily with every wave.

• During storms, large amounts of sand can be washed away.

• During calmer weather, some of that sand may be carried back onto the beach.

• Sandy beaches are constantly changing—they’re very dynamic.

The beach itself acts almost like a cushion. The sand absorbs and redistributes much of the wave’s energy.

Pebble and cobble beaches

When the shoreline is covered with pebbles and rounded stones:

• The waves must lift and roll those rocks.

• That movement uses a tremendous amount of energy.

• Less wave energy reaches farther inland.

The stones themselves become a protective armor over the shoreline. You’ll often hear the loud rattling sound as waves pull the stones back—that sound is literally rocks absorbing energy.

Boulder shorelines

Large boulders have an even greater effect.

They:

• Break incoming waves into smaller currents.

• Create turbulence that dissipates wave energy.

• Slow water before it reaches the land behind them.

• Help protect cliffs or soil from direct erosion.

Instead of one powerful wave hitting the shoreline, the wave is broken into dozens of smaller currents flowing around the rocks.

A sandy beach is like a pillow—it deforms and moves with the force.

• A rocky beach is like many padded blocks—each rock takes part of the impact, so no single point receives the full force

In engineering, this is why riprap (large rocks placed along shorelines) is commonly used to protect coasts, riverbanks, and dams. Rather than trying to stop the water completely—which often fails—it breaks up the water’s energy and lets it pass through in a controlled way

Food for thought and introspect that will make me see each beach different now.

Sometimes what feels like a deterrent is for my protection and offering lessons unawares needed. Our Lord will make a way when we think there is no way. sometimes the path is smooth like sand or path straight, other times I rock or two, maybe even a mountain get in our way forcing us to look at our options.