Lessons from the ocean #4 Our bodies, like seashells are perfect and purposeful. What do seashells have to do with body image? hang with me.🐚

🐚Seashells are more than beautiful ornaments you see scattered along the beach. They were actually home to mollusks (invertebrate animals) like snails, clams and oysters. The seashells are the outer skeletons of these small creatures. Some are curved and round, others long and tube-like. Some are smooth, others bumpy. Some are large, others small. Plus, they come in a rainbow of colors: red, green, brown, purple, pink, and more. Just like us, right? All different shapes, colors, sizes.

🐚A seashell is made mostly of calcium. It forms from the bottom up (similar to human fingernails). The way the shell is shaped and how it looks is purposeful. It’s a house; a shell and perfectly shaped for the creature it protects. And the colors represent what it ate and conditions during formation. It absorbs salt and chemicals from the water around it. How cool is that? When it has enough of the right ingredients, it uses them to form a hard substance called calcium carbonate. I find this synergy so fascinating.

🐚 What if we could look at our “body shell” that houses our spirit and see it as perfect and purposeful in every stage? What if we could see ultimate beauty…always?

What if when we are “rolling in the surf” and “being tumbled by the sea”, we knew that even in our broken state and worn edges, we serve a purpose?

Even after a seashell is done being a home for it’s original creation, it is stabilization and important sediment for the ocean. dissolving slowly. It’s recycled back into the ocean. Always perfect and purposeful. Just like you and me.

Every time I roam the shores for the shells, I’m going to be thinking about this parallel.

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