The plan was to go fishing at Black Hills Regional Park, so I kept my camera close by because two girls who fish with princess fishing poles seemed like a good beginning to a story. I snapped photos and listened to Hadley and Harper while constructing a possible blog post.
But the fish weren’t biting. It was one of the first warm days and the water was probably cold. Or, the other fifteen or so kids screaming on the dock clued the fish in that trouble was at the surface. So, after a while we headed to a little beach to see what there was to see.
Hadley and Harper found these tiny shells along the shore.
Hadley was focused on picking up whole shells, but Harper examined every fragment, turning it over, seeing if its lost part was somewhere else nearby, then handing them all to me to keep safe. “They’re broken, but they’re still shells,” she said.
What I like about writing on this blog is the space it gives me to make observations. Unfortunately, that will never be a brand or platform. I doubt I will ever have an elevator pitch as I’ve been told I ought to, and that is because I rarely know what it is I’m going to write. The reason I write anything is because I’m interested in exploring. Sometimes I’ll have a whopper of a story, but other times what I have will be fragments, tiny notes that I’m turning over and deciding to hold in my palm so they won’t get lost.
Funny…the sentence I woke up thinking this morning was, “I fear I am running out of time to be spectacular and memorable.” I also just like to write what I am feeling/seeing in a moment. Not sure anyone will ever pay me a million dollars for it. Oh well. I’m happy to know you, and I think your essays are terrific. I would buy a book of them.
You are spectacular, Lisa. 🙂
The Callie brand of beautiful writing will keep me coming back in any form.
(So, too, will the Lisa brand!)
Pieces like this give me a nudge to just write down what I’m thinking, already. Thanks for that.
Thank you, Michele. I really appreciate that!
I’m pretty sure this is a bit of writing gold. I completely identify… and I love it.
Thank you very much, Sonya! And thanks for sharing my post!
I am always amazed at the lovely words you can spin around simple observations, Callie. It’s something I’m striving to do more of these days, to submerse myself in what is around me and think less about the big picture.
Thank you for sharing the things you observe.
Thanks, Abbie! Sometimes my spinning takes a while, so I’m glad to know you enjoy the web. 🙂
Me too, to everything.
I’m glad I’m in good company. 🙂
This is one of those piece where I say, “I wish I had written that.”
i got that big tight lump in my throat when i read harper’s line “they’re broken, but they’re still shells.” i love that little girl’s heart and the grace she shows things that are less than perfect. isn’t this how we should think about ourselves… and others? incomplete and searching and flawed, but still with great worth. still image bearers. looking around for the parts of us that are missing, but still inherently valuable in the fragment?
I know. Me, too.