she sell seashells on the seashore

ok. its official.

I LOVE SEASHELLS!!!

Everytime i look at seashells.... Those on my bedside.... Those that had been strung into bracelets... Those that had been strung into necklace (which i wore as an anklet instead)... Ah.. I feel so happy...

Shells are perhaps the closest reminder of God's creation to me in this small, hectic urban life. Some of those I look at are picked up with I was at East coast as a primary school kid. I cant recognize which ones exactly. BUt I know the two pieces with barnacles at my bedside are amongst those I've picked up more than a decade ago. There was a small 3cm stick of coral I picked up when I backpacked to the Southern THailand Islands in 2001. (No, you are not supposed to pick up corals. But then, i seriously had no idea what a coral was.) THere was a piece EC picked for me from Samui. THere was quite a collection from my recent trip to khaolak. Some picked up by myself, a couple by EC, most of them, by this lady massuer I went to, who passed me an entire bag of shells when she saw the few shells I picked up and tied in a plastic bag on my sling.

When I see the shells, i try to think.. calcium carbonate. They used to be homes.. and protection to different types of animals. Clams, barnacles, cowries, and the many that I cannot identify. Eventually when the residents in these shells perish, hermit crabs might have taken refuge in them (i rem my Mr Shy!! EC and I released on Nang Thong beach. Wat an adventure it had travelling from Tap Tawan beach, to the tiled toilet in Phu Khao Lak, before hitting the strong waves of Nang Thong beach). Some of the lives... of the shells i hold in my hand... have come and gone, more than 10 years ago... Leaving behind a skeleton.. we call.. shells... But they have experienced tides... beautiful fishes... coral... YOu never know where they've been to. For some pieces. Yes. For others (that necklace, my elder sister got from Papua New Guinea I think), i have no idea. But guess wat? My Abba knows each of they stories!

I have a fetish for airports and planes (ok, this is random). But I have a greater fetish for shells. Sadly, i'm not exactly doing the right thing. See, whenever one picks up a shell, we are reducing the potential homestay of a hermitcrab in search of a new home. But... I just love them so much I can't resist. So much for conserving the environment. Surely there are enough shells to go round? :P At least shells are hardly a currency now, making them less in deamdn?

In any case, I have a fetish for shells. Because, the fact that they are skeletons... beautiful remains... beautiful memories.... beautiful evidence.... beautiful testimony of His greatness and awesomeness....

I wanna live in a shell castle... ah ha ha ha...

*Under the sea
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea*

Mmm mmmm....

Oh yeah... i wonder how Mr Shy is doing now. Wat do u tink EC? God, only You noe!