E is for ears that hear and eyes that see

E is for ears that hear and eyes that see.

Back in my college days, a friend and I took a stroll on the Jersey Shore weeks before school let out. We had the beach to ourselves, meandering in the waves and talking about how we would change the world one day. Every few steps she pointed at the sand and rocks, then called out, “Oh, look—sea glass.” She bent down to pick up a shiny green piece of glass that had been polished by the constant crash of waves on the shore. Sometimes she found amber pieces, white, and a few bright blue ones. Each time she reached for the glass, I strained to see where her hand would lead to—I could not for the life of me see the glass until her fingers were right on top of it.

“How can you even see that?” I asked. “It looks just like the rocks and shells around it.”   

           

“It’s simple,” she said. “They’re everywhere.”

We kept walking and she kept finding the glass that my eyes were untrained to see—so frustrating! Finally, I got the hang of what to look for. By the end of the morning I had a few pieces of glass to take home. My few were not much compared to her colorful collection, but they meant the world to me because I found them on my own.

We never figured out how we’d change the world, but I learned a valuable lesson from the sea glass—truth is out there, whether you can see it or not.

In my story, Magic-Sense is the very real ability to see and hear beyond earthly sight and sound. For a fantasy novel, this is a great way to propel my characters into the mystical world called the Kingdom of Forever. But it has a deeper level of meaning, one that is symbolic in nature. We have spiritual eyes and ears that can be trained to see and hear beyond earthly sights and sounds. And so, my novel is a fantasy story with a deeper message—for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.