My Valentine Shell

In her "Gift From the Sea," Anne Morrow Lindbergh tells the story of her time alone on a beach-side vacation and the self-discoveries she made through the metaphor of the various types of seashells she collected while there.  Recently, I've had a yearning for a few seashells to decorate our home.  Perhaps it's the desire to move into a new season from the heaviness of pine cones and evergreens.  Whatever the reason, I bought a small bag of seashells at my favorite thrift store and placed them in a Blue Willow bowl that had been my mom's.  Mom loved seashells, so the combination of shells and bowl seemed appropriate.   While scouring through my thrift store find, I discovered that one of the shells was a sliver-thin, pale and small heart-shaped shell, hardly bigger around than a quarter  It seemed the perfect addition to the Valentine card I had gotten my husband.  I may not have the poetic words of Anne Morrow Lindbergh in my being, but I felt the poetic pull of the heart-shaped shell when I thought of my loving husband Larry. As I rolled the shell over and over in my hand, it reminded me that love is precious and beautiful and honed into its own shape over time and some adversity. However, like the shell, love may appear fragile, but it is actually strong and resilient and made to survive the test of time.  So, with the gift of a small shell, I send my love and best wishes to my favorite Valentine, my husband Larry.