Sanibel Island, FL–Today’s Thanksgiving, a time to pause and reflect on what we’re grateful for. On Sanibel Island, many people are grateful for the bounty of nature. They preserve and protect the wetlands, through Ding Darling National Wildlife Reserve, and also through many smaller organizations that assist wildlife, help educate kids about the marine environment, and encourage low-impact travel with miles of bike trails.
Someone found a nine-pointed starfish in the tidepool. We took turns looking at it, then she gently picked it up and brought it over a sandbar for safer release into the ocean.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes in A Gift From The Sea (based on her visits to the island in the 1950s) that a few seashells have more impact than dozens–that less is often better than more. It’s not about the acquisition, it’s about the appreciation of what is right in front of us. She propped up a shell on her desk back home in Connecticut to reinforce that thought. What a wonderful way to remind one of the simple, yet powerful beauty of nature.