channeled whelk

I've decided to keep on the theme of "Gift from the Sea" because it is so me right now.  As I make major life decisions. 

The first shell Anne Morrow Lindbergh (yes she is the wife of Charles Lindbergh)  talks about is the one above.  The channeled whelk.   When the boys and I were at the beach a few years ago we found a ton of these that had come ashore following a storm.  It was such a treat to us because we never see these where we vacation.  But here they were...lots of them on a beach.

A welk lives inside the shell and many of those we found had been shed with nothing living inside.   I wonder what that little fellow looks like.  I talked to Zack and Taylor last night on the way home from the ocean.   They told me about finding a shell with a crab in it and they picked it up not knowing and it scared them so!

The welks we found had been shed.  Sometimes we need to shed things in our lives.  As women we are asked to take care of so much.  Sometimes it is ok to say "no".  Think of the many hats you wear.  How do we keep it all going?  When a hat gets a little too tight and needs removed...it isn't always easy to take it off. 

A great quote from the book is: " This is not the simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of.  It leads not to unification but to fragmentation.  It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul." It is ok to simplify our lives...to downsize...to start smaller.  The beach does that to us.  We live with less...we concentrate less...we do less...we relax...and like that channeled whelk we need to shed some things and simplify to a shell we can carry easily!