Sand-Dollar Magic

I believe in karma as a whole and real entity. So much so it rules my every decision: how will this affect me, what am I putting out into the universe that will either boomerang back blessings or negativity? So much so that Anthony has started to talk 'karmic juju' as he calls it--and I find him weighing decisions with the same measure of reasoning.

He has a knack for finding things. One year on the beach, Robert lost our only car key in the sand. We refer to this story (only recently with humor, even though it occurred probably five years ago) as 'hide-the-key-find-the-key. Anthony was the one to find the key, probably saving Roberts life (Amanda was about to kill him!). I have a sand dollar about my kitchen sink, once perfect but now cracked from Oliver's sink play, that I always push together to look deceptively whole. He found this perfect sand-dollar on the beach of Tybee, our home away from home. He has a gift for finding things, a gift that I find adds whimsy and magic and a little bit of romance into our life.
Amanda had made a comment once or twice about wanting a sand-dollar so my mission this vacation was to find her one. Anthony spent all of yesterday in the ocean, scooping sand between his fingers, searching for the one perfect sand-dollar.
He found one, then another, then another: but all of them alive. In the course of the afternoon, he probably found 10 perfectly round, unblemished sand-dollars, all brown and slowly inching up the palm of his hand. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he weighed the karmic pros against the cons.
Finally he says to me: "What kind of karmic juju will I be putting into the universe if I kill something just because I like the way it's corpse looks?"
Touche. And he put them back, one after another.
"The universe will reward us," I assured him. "Before the week is done."
This morning I woke up to an empty house. Everyone except for me and the kids are spending the day on a boat deep-sea fishing. I had a text from Anthony, telling me to go outside and look at the railing to the left. He is always one to leave me a surprise, especially because I was feeling a little blue about being left behind.
I padded out onto the porch and started laughing. Covering the white railing right outside my bedroom window were probably 35 perfectly bleached-white sand-dollars. My brother was the one to notice them, evidently they have been there the entire time but because they blended perfectly with the color of the porch, were unnoticed until last night.
Or.
I believe in magic, I believe in karma and I believe in the power of the universe. While I can acknowledge that the sand-dollars were probably there the entire time we've been here-- I also believe that somehow they were left for Anthony and me, a reward for his kindness, a reward for our respect for life. I feel moved, even in this moment, by the magic of that sight, moved by the magic that Anthony always seems to bring into my life.



Now if we can get even one home in one piece, that will be it's own kind of miracle :-)