Broken Shells
My wife and I started taking at least one beach trip every year after our first trip together in 2012. Somewhere along the way, we discovered a love for searching for seashells. Before long, we had bags of shells tucked away everywhere around the house. Every one of them holds a memory.
When my son, Jace, was little, he’d watch me searching the shoreline and start bringing me every shell he could find. Most of them were broken. I’d thank him, wait until he looked away, and quietly toss them back into the water.
Years later, Raylee started doing the same thing. She’s eight now, and she knows how much I love shell hunting. She’ll spend hours searching, excited to hand me every treasure she finds.
As for me, I’ve always been chasing the perfect shell.
I’m the one constantly looking down instead of ahead, digging my toes into the sand beneath the water, hoping to uncover that colorful scallop, a Letter Olive, a perfect conch, or something I’ve never seen before. One of my favorite shells is a giant conch from the Dominican Republic that’s nearly as big as my head. The story of finding it—and everything we went through to get it home—is an adventure for another journal entry.
But over the last few years, something has changed.
I’ve realized maybe the perfect shells aren’t the ones we should be searching for.
The broken shells.
The weathered ones.
The worn-down pieces.
The ones most people walk right past.
They’re a lot like us.
Every shell has a story written by the tides that shaped it. Every chip, crack, and rough edge tells you where it’s been.
People are no different.
Every one of us has been broken somehow. We’ve all been shaped by storms, loss, mistakes, disappointments, and time. Some scars are easy to see. Others stay hidden beneath the surface.
Maybe the value was never in being perfect.
Maybe the value is simply in someone seeing beauty where everyone else kept walking.
So the next time you’re walking the beach, don’t be so quick to throw the broken shells back into the surf.
Pick one up.
Look a little closer.
You just might find yourself.