There was a man who enjoyed going to the beach to get away from the stresses of his life and enjoy the water and the waves. He would come and sit in the sand and feel the breezes of the wind upon his face....
One day, he came to beach and there was a little girl playing in the sand where he usually would sit. The little girl looked up and said hi and asked him his name...
He returned the hello and told her his name was Larry. He asked her what her name was. He also asked if she was building a sand castle in the sand....
She said her name was Windy. She had curly blonde hair and eyes of blue that reminded him of the deepest oceans he had ever seen. She said she wasn't building a sand castle but that she just enjoyed playing in the sand....
They talked a little more and he didn't really want to stay so as he was getting ready to leave, a bird flew by. He asked her what that was and she said it was a sandpiper and that sand pipers bring joy. He asked her how she knew that and she told him her mother had told her so....
She told him it was a good day....
The next time he came to the beach she was there again. She asked him if he wanted to play and he said no. I just want to walk today. Ok, she asked if she could join him. He didn't really want company but he said sure....
The man wondered why this little girl wasn't in school. Why she was always at the beach when he came. They walked up the beach and she told him she lived in a small cottage there by the shore. He looked up there and could see the mother working about the yard....
They talked some more and she said to him that this is a good day....
The next time the man came to the beach it was a few days after his Dad had died. He wanted to be alone. He missed his father very much. He was hoping she would not be there because he wanted to be alone....
But she was there. She came smiling up to him and asked if he wanted to play. He told her no. He told her he didn't feel like playing today and that all he wanted was to be alone. She asked why and he told her his father had just died...
She said that this is a bad day....
Well, the man didn't return to the beach for several weeks but while he was away he had done a lot of thinking. He missed his dad, but he also really missed his little friend at the beach so he went there to see her....
He walked to the spot where she would be playing but there was nobody there except a long lonely stretch of beach. He walked up and down the beach all afternoon looking for her. It was getting close to dark and he decided he would go up to her house to see if she was there...
He knocked on the door and the lady he had seen that day opened it. He told her he was Larry and that he had come to see Windy if that was ok...
She said that she knew who he was because Windy had spoken a lot about her friend Larry at the beach. Windy's mother told him that he couldn't see Windy anymore because she had died 2 weeks ago of cancer. She told him that she had taken her to live at the beach because Windy loved the beach....
The mother asked Larry in and told him Windy had left something for him if she could find it....
She searched the house and finally she found this folded piece of paper like an envelope. On the outside was painted in bright colors TO LARRY. He opened it and on the inside was a painting of a sandpiper with the words...Sandpipers bring you joy.
I don't know who the original author of this piece is. That fellow pictured over on the left side of the page sent it to me- it is his interpretation of a story he heard himself. :) I told him I would stick his picture on here...don't think he believed me though. LOL I think he should do more writing but he says no...ah well, perhaps he will one day be convinced....
