I do not really know how to tell the age of a seashell, and apparently Google doesn’t either. So I’ll just go with my own, more romantic, mermaidesque interpretation. Having gathered thousands of shells in my life, I know when one is recently vacated by its resident. It tends to look shiny, with sharp ridges and vibrant colors. Given that bit of wisdom, I can only imagine that this conch, with its wave-beaten sworls worn down to soft semblances of their former selves, has seen a century or so in the sea. Its shadow, however, somehow reflects its past glory, with edges seemingly still honed. The shadow of a memory, perhaps.
Cozumel, Mexico.
Quote of the day: “I seek truth and beauty in the transparency of an autumn leaf, in the perfect form of a seashell on the beach, in the curve of a woman’s back, in the texture of an ancient tree trunk, but also in the elusive forms of reality.” == Isabel Allende
Daily gratitudes:
A crescent moon
Corgis
Work
MKL
The first hearing of the twee-woo bird, a sure sign of spring
6 comments
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March 11, 2016 at 9:17 pm
Theexplorerkulish
Great post, keep up the writing.
March 12, 2016 at 8:07 pm
Seasweetie
Thank you – glad you stopped by, explorerkulish!
March 11, 2016 at 9:32 pm
theitinerary1
Interesting
March 12, 2016 at 3:04 pm
thesanguinewoods
Reblogged this on The Sanguine Woods: Words of Darkness & Light and commented:
How I adore this…
March 12, 2016 at 3:11 pm
thesanguinewoods
How beautiful. Remember that poem by Oliver about the shells being knocked about by the sea’s blue hands…
***
or the whelks,
ribbed or with ivory knobs;
but so knocked about
in the sea’s blue hands
and their story is at length only
about the wholeness of destruction –
…
what all the music will come to is nothing,
only the sheets of fog and the fog’s blue bell –
you do not believe it now, your are not supposed to,
you do not believe it yet – but you will –
morning by singular morning,
and shell by broken shell.
From “A Morning Walk” by Mary Oliver
http://rogernolan.blogspot.com/2010/04/morninig-walk.html?m=1
March 12, 2016 at 8:07 pm
Seasweetie
I so love Mary Oliver.