Rock pool revelation

I hadn't intended to go down to the rock pools
but a basket of time arrived like a gift
which I received with welcoming hands

like a child
I walked from rock to rock
not 7  or 17 anymore but 71
so more aware
of the need for care
and relieved to reach
the exposed beach
and the pools
that called me in my youth
and call me still
to be
still...


it's far too easy to glimpse,
it's far too easy to glance
and then rush on
instead of settling and letting
the shadows clear and
the depths reveal themselves
as eyes adjust to the slanted light

and then it will happen ...
the slightest movement will catch our attention
and draw us to the path of a tiny cat's eye snail;
a curve of kelp will waft away
and show the kina,* shiny-spined,
cramped in a crevice;
a glass shrimp's antennae will dance to and fro;
and hormosira banksii - a name from my youth -
will offer its brown beads for popping!

be called
be still
look into the wondrous rock pool
of your own inner being
and let yourself find and be found by
the One who made you.

* kina - the Maori word for sea urchin