Agate Magic

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NOTE: There is nothing scientifically provable in this story. But it is still 100% true.

This weekend my kids and I had the occasion to visit my dad’s favorite beach. We were visiting one of my dad’s favorite people, Patsi. It was Patsi who whispered in my ear at my dad’s service 12 years ago that I was his favorite child. And Patsi and I were walking on the beach with my dad’s favorite grandchildren he’s never met.

You can see where I’m going with this. It was a powerful place.

As we walked on the beach, we were hunting for agates. I’ll insert the dictionary definition here because the “you know them when you see them” approach doesn’t work well with writing. Miriam-Webster describes these rocks as: “a fine-grained variegated chalcedony having its colors arranged in stripes, blended in clouds, or showing mosslike forms.”

picture of an agate

We walked 40 minutes at beachcombing pace to get to my dad’s favorite beach. As we strolled, Patsi and I told the kids about Dad’s uncanny ability to find agates. My dad had a lazy eye so he essentially could only see out of one eye. This meant he lacked depth perception (in the visual sense, not the spiritual sense). But somehow he developed the timing to hit the tennis ball, the coordination to swing at a softball, and the ability to help everyone find where their errant golf balls were hit. And he could spot agates on the beach.

One of my dad’s favorite antics was to slyly pick up an agate he found and then toss it in front of whoever he was with so they could “find” it. This happened often to both Patsi and me. If we failed to notice the “planted” agate, he’d point it out and tease, “how could you miss this? It’s practically the size of a boulder?”

As we beachcombed with the kids, I was starting to regret talking up the agates so much. It’d been almost 20 years since I’d been to this beach, what if there weren’t agates any more? Was I setting my kids up for a failure?

And then my 11-year-old daughter, Miss O, exclaimed, “I found one!” Patsi, the official verifier, declared it not just an agate, but a boulder of one.

I was feeling the parental anxiety of one kid getting one when it was unlikely that the other would. Then less than three minutes after Miss O’s find, my six-year-old son said, “there’s one!” He found a beautifully colored and shaped one.

We idly kept beach combing. Now that my kids had theirs, I felt more alive to the sunshine and water sounds. As I relaxed in the breath-taking scenery in a place my beloved father loved, I looked down – and there was a beautiful agate directly in front of my left toe.

Completely unprovable but I’m 100% certain my dad was there, “planting” the agates, reveling in our joy, soothing our worries, and surrounding us with love, as he always did.

P.S. Patsi confessed later that she didn’t think we’d find any. She’s lived on that beach for 31 years so she has a pretty good sense. But there’s no accounting for magic.

(photos are mine from Guemes Island, Washington)

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48 thoughts on “Agate Magic”

  1. Ohhhh! Of course it was Dick Leon, saying hello…enjoying the opportunity to see his favorite trio (plus Patti!).
    Love, love, love every bit…thank you for inviting us to join you on your papa’s favorite beach. ❤️😉❤️

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  2. Remind me again..is Patsi your dad’s sister, or relative? What a priceless gift of encouragement (that you were your dad’s favorite) (I’ve had similar sentiment shared with me about my mom’s attitude toward me. I would never tell my siblings .

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    1. Good question, Doug. Patsi and her late husband John were friends of my parents from the last church he served at. My dad and Patsi had a similar outlook so they just had a synergy that was really cool.

      I love that about your mom. I never told my siblings either. Happy Monday, DM!

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  8. I was smiling as I got to the end of your story – as I had the same intuition as you: your dad was 100% there with you, throwing those agate in front of your two kids to find. 💕🙏 What a beautiful moment with Patsi and I’m glad you got to visit the beach with the kids!

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  13. This is amazing and I fully believe your dad was there showing the kids a part of themselves the one who you loved beautiful things and reminding you to live life with joy and he’ll always be around.

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      1. And I wish that your dad had visited me when I was doing my first ever agate search when I visited the upper Peninsula for the first time last year and was on the shore of Lake superior!

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  16. I love this story. Spiritual connections exist, but we don’t always see them. And I love agates. I had one as a child that got lost along the way, and I still wish I had it. There is something magical about them apart from anything else.

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  18. Thank you for sharing this beautiful, ‘magical’ testimony of your Dad’s presence Wynne.

    He was there walking with you and your precious children along the beach … smiling as each of you ‘found’ the special agate he placed to assure you that one day you will all walk hand-in-hand … forever together … with each other and Him on Heaven’s shores, where all agates are ‘boulder’ size 😊🪽😊

    Keep Looking Up ^ … His Best is Yet to Come!

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  21. Magic, indeed. Wow, I fully believe your father was there, planting the agates for you to find. Beautiful, Wynne. Wow!! We had similar experience after my grandmother passed, so I fully believe out loved ones are here ins spirit protecting us and communicating with us, even when their physical body is gone. 💖

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  23. The parental anxiety. Oh my goodness Wynne. My parental skills are a little rusty, but that’s the first thing that jumped through my head. Uh-oh, will they find two. Yikes. Of course, you did. Ha, ha. Love the connection with your father. He made sure his grandkids had a wonderful day!

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  24. That memory of your dad slyly planting agates in front of people so they could ‘find’ them is so sweet! I completely felt that pang of parental anxiety you described when Miss O found her first one—like WritingfromtheheartwithBrian mentioned in the comments, you immediately wonder if both kids will get lucky. Having all three of you find one right in a row feels so undeniably planted from above. What a precious day, Wynne!

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