"In June We Picked The Clover,

And Seashells in July...." (Cecil Day-Lewis)

"The tide recedes, but leaves behind
    bright seashells on the sand.
The sun goes down, but gentle warmth
    still lingers on the land.
The music stops, yet echoes on
    in sweet, soulful refrains.
For every joy that passes, something
    beautiful remains."

Shells and ribbon on Coronado Beach, February, 2010. I know how the shells came to be there. It is the ribbon I wonder about.

"A seashell is like a memory. The life is gone. The beauty remains."

In the case of this whelk I picked up on South Padre Island Beach, the life was still inside. A couple pics and the shell went back into the Gulf. I was a little disappointed - that was the biggest and nicest shell I'd ever found. (November 2005)

A few shells I have brought home are in the window above the kitchen sink. (Along with many rocks also carried home from trips.)

I know some of those are from the public beach at Dauphin Island on Pelican Bay because this is the photo I took of them when we got back to our room. (April, 2014)

A necklace with a seashell provides both memories and beauty. The little one on the green cord is one my son, Douglas brought back from his recent stay on St. John. Mother Nature not only gave him the shell, she wedged the tiniest little grain of sand into the hole at the top. It was this which helped me pick it from among the several shells his daughters and granddaughters and I had to choose from.

"Perhaps this is the most important thing for me to take back from beach-living: simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid; each cycle of the wave is valid; each cycle of a relationship is valid." (Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From the Sea)