photo: Martha G. Brady
Last weekend at the beach reminded me of many times at the beach where we collected shells. No, we didn’t this time, but I remember when we would go looking for shells. I even had a shell book that showed many of the shells and told about them.
We would look for shells that caught our eye. Sometimes we liked the color, shape, or size. Other times, we were looking for a specific shell. Once we got back to the room and cleaned them up, we found we didn’t keep all of them. Sometimes, they were more beat up than we originally thought. For one reason or other, some were rejected.
Then we headed home at the end of our vacation with our sack of shells. stop What would we do with them? Some were mounted and framed. The really large ones were saved in a bowl or on the mantle to touch and look at often. The more beat up ones were put in jars to decorate rooms…often the bathroom.
They reminded us of our vacation where we played and laughed and swam and enjoyed each other. The kids could run, play in and out of the water, make sand castles and wear themselves out. Looking at those shells also reminded us of the books we read as we rested in the afternoons. Beach vacations were fun.
After supper, we would watch the sun go down and walk along the beach. At night, we would go to sleep to the sound of the waves lulling us to sleep. What could be more comforting?
Do you have collections that remind you of happy memories or your values?
Do you have symbols or collections in your home that remind you of special moments in the life of your family? Maybe not all of you are as visual as I am, but often those reminders, even if only in photographs, bring joy and hope when hard times come. They also remind us of happy memories.
I have a collection of sand dollars that reminds me of a fun trip to the beach south of Ensenada, Mexico. As we walked along, we found two distinct populations of sand dollars in different areas of the beach–in between, we found hybrids of the two!
how interesting anita:) i love looking at nature. wish i started doing it more often and earlier in my life. so cool and interesting.
I used to love collecting shells too. Such fun memories.
for sure tara:)
Martha,
Such sweet memories! My husband and I have a collection of our stuff from when we were dating, and now little memoirs of things we do together. They all sit in a little box in our closet and it is the sweetest thing to go through and remember all the times we’ve had together.
Thank you for sharing your gift of writing! Lovely blog! 🙂
thanks kaitlin:) glad you stopped by:)
Hi, Grace! We both collect shells, it seems! 🙂 Enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing!
thanks for stopping by gaby:) actually, my name is martha. i just write about GOD’s gritty grace:)
Hi Martha,
This reminds me of a time a few summers ago when I went to the beach with my uncle and 2 women who were my bus driver and bus aid that took me to school when I was younger. They took us to look for beach glass. I think one or both collected it. It was beautiful.
I collect letters friends write to me. I think it has a lot to do with being a writer too. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this. Visiting from fmf. 🙂
thanks for coming by julia:) that’s one thing i haven’t looked for…beach glass:) sounds fun!