Twistedspinster

Perspectives

This is a piece of a seashell I picked up on the beach while we were looking for caracol shells.



The Roketman and I are going back to visit our respective families at Christmas, and I'm going to be taking my Mom to have Christmas dinner with her brother Jim and his troops. There will be 4 generations, from age 83 down to toddler.

I thought I'd gather a few small shells to take to the grand and great grand kids (actually my cousins a few times removed, but trying to keep track makes me dizzy). I thought back to my own childhood phase of enjoying seashells, and those calipers that I talked my mother into buying so I could be an oceanographer some day. I collected as many shells as a kid in Kansas in the 50s could -- which wasn't many. When we went to Corpus Christi for vacation I was so excited... but the seashells I found were all flawed. That didn't suit my young idealistic mind at all! I wanted those seashells to be flawless, and I was sure my life would be too.

I chuckle now at that notion. I gathered those seashells on the beach in Oaxaca knowing that young kids are idealistic and want perfection, and tried to find shells that they would find interesting.

When I found this piece of shell, I was entranced by the graceful spiral, and impressed at its survival. I can't even imagine where it's been, and what travels it's had. I'm not old, except maybe by my younger self's perspective. But I've been tossed by the seas, and lucky enough to land in a place where I'm not perfect -- but I am happy with what I am.

I wear this shell as a necklace now. I want it to remind me of Oaxaca, and all its marvelous adventures, but I also want it to remind me that perspectives change. I am what I am -- different from what was, and what will be...

posted by Ruth S. @ 11:24 AM