This [sand-dollar hunting] had become one of our rituals together, and though she would search for other varieties of shells when I was out of town or unable to see her, she would wait until I appeared on her front porch before setting off to extract these mute delicate coins from their settings in the sand. At first, we had collected only the larger specimens, but gradually as we learned what was rare and to be truly prized, we began to gather only the smallest sand dollars for our collection. Our trophies were sometimes as small as thumbnails and as fragile as contact lenses. Annie Kate collected the tiniest relics, round and cruciform and white as bone china when dried of sea water, and placed them in a glass-and-copper cricket box in her bedroom. Often we would sit together and admire the modest splendor of our accumulation. At times it looked like the coinage of a shy, diminutive species of angel. Our quest to find the smallest sand dollar became a competition between us, and as the months passed and Annie Kate grew larger with the child, the brittle, desiccated animals we unearthed from the sand became smaller and smaller. It was all a matter of training the eye to expect less. Pat Conroy
About This Quote

In this quote, the author talks about collecting sand dollars from the beach. After a few attempts, it is clear that the writer has a collection of fossils. He has a sense of pride and a sense of achievement as he looks at his collection. He is happy to share his collection with his girlfriend because he knows she will enjoy looking at them as much as he does. The fact that the writer feels a sense of accomplishment and pride in his collection makes it very clear that he has an eye for nature and appreciates nature and its beauty.

Source: The Lords Of Discipline

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More Quotes By Pat Conroy
  1. I wanted to become the seeker, the aroused and passionate explorer, and it was better to go at it knowing nothing at all, always choosing the unmarked bottle, always choosing your own unproven method, armed with nothing but faith and a belief in astonishment.
  2. I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.
  3. It did not look like the work of God, but it might have represented the handicraft of a God with a joyous sense of humor, a dancing God who loved mischief as much as prayer, and playfulness as much as mischief.
  4. The tide was a poem that only time could create, and I watched it stream and brim and makes its steady dash homeward, to the ocean.
  5. Happiness is an accident of nature, a beautiful and flawless aberration.
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