Sea Shell Collecting

Imagine a late summer's day spent on the back porch sorting sea shells from your trip to the beach.  A perfect day in my opinion, and I got to do just that this week.

I collected all of these shells on our trip to Isle of Palms, SC this summer.  One of my absolute favorite activities was to walk up to the top of the island where the inlet waters flowed between our island and the next.  The first day I walked I started to notice I had a definite preference for three types of shells, Lettered Olives, Moon Snails, and Channeled Whelks.   (I didn't yet know their names, but my friend Melissa lives in Charleston and she politely told me their names over and over.)

There is something truly magical about shells.  If someone had told me when I was a child that there was a place you could go where the universe deposited new, incredibly beautiful treasures every single day and that anyone could just go and pick them up, I wouldn't have believed them.  Think about it...every single day totally unique works of art are left by the ocean.  Not only do their smooth bodies feel lovely to the touch, but their spiral forms are truly stunning.

“The world is full of magic things,
patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” 

― W.B. Yeats

As I sorted the shells I had so much fun choosing different combinations of color and form to photograph.

Of course, it wasn't just me who was interested in the shells.  I had a very curious helper who had to smell all the shells.

The Moon Snail was one of my absolute favorite types of shell.  It is also called Shark Eye and the animal that used to live inside is a marine snail that eats bivalves by boring holes into their shells and then digesting the contents.  I LOVE the smooth surface and round shape of these shells.  Plus this shell is all about the perfect spiral.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the shell below is a knobbed whelk.

The two photos below contain Lettered Olives.  I could have spent a LONG time photographing just this type of shell.  I love the open "mouth" hole at the tip of some of them and imagine them emitting some sort of lovely ocean tones when they crowd around together to sing.

Midway through my photoshoot, yet another helper came to investigate.

Below is a photo of a sea urchin shell.  I wasn't sure what species it was, but love the radiating nubs.

The photo below is the only shell I collected from a crab.  I thought the spotted pattern on its back was stunning and the round shape of its body so interesting and balloon-like.

The theme of this blog is about noticing the beauty and magic that surrounds us everyday.  And if I had to come up with the perfect example of this it would be shells.  The very act of collecting shells is a practice in noticing what draws you.  What is it you love?  Do you like the smooth or rough texture?  Grey or pink shells?  Tubular or shallow?  Open or closed?  As I walked along the beach, a smooth spiral would catch my eye from a distance.  I would alter my path and make my way over to it to see if it had what I considered to be the perfect combination of elements.  And therein lies the beauty of collecting.  No one else can tell you what you love...you just know.

The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all,
and then stands back to see if we can find them.

— Elizabeth Gilbert