Conversation with a scallop shell

You’ve been calling to me from your marine mollusk home for quite some time –

Whispering to me via gifts from friends

Pendants on necklaces

Surprising me in a box wrapped with string

Words inscribed

“Unless you leave room for serendipity, how can the divine enter in?

The beginning of the adventure of finding yourself is to lose your way.”

Loudly announcing your

Bonjour Sharon

Do do you see us?

Do we have your attention now?

Calling to me from arched doorways in Paris

Perched on bridges

Pedestaled at poissoneries

At the entrance to Chartres Cathedral,

Simply be,

You whispered

As I stepped into the labyrinth

Holding my breath

As I sometimes do when something magical, sacred and holy

Is happening.

Simply be,

You whistled as you caught my eye in the antique market

Dozens of you softly singing your melody

From stirring spoons

To name place holders

From silvered pieces

To created shells

You are symbolic of the pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago –

Perhaps we shall journey there some day?

You speak deeply of metaphor

And yet so much more.

The grooves in your shell

Reminding me of my interior journeys

As well as the external pilgrimages I long for

The ocean waves wash you onto shore

Reminding me of the Divines guiding hand in my life.

You come from water

The vast deep of ocean

And I hear you laugh

As together we chuckle

‘Isn’t your word for the year,

Water?’

Quote: Joseph Campbell