As I prepare to return to sunnier climes, I recall the last time I wandered about the world… and laid shells (instead of stones) along the Camino:
Wandering Shells
Stones piled high on cairns
For atonement or release.
Shards of loss and tears
Imprinted on pebbles.
Like a forgotten lover’s flower pressed into
The pages of a novel
As if these stones could carry
The combined weight of
All the world’s dreams and grief.
I too place stones
Not on the path, but
On the gravestones
Of my forebears
My momentary presence
Tangible proof that I Was There
But, I Am Here
In a place outside
Time and space
Far from my ancestral
Sanctuary of stones.
I carry shells.
Gifts from distant seas
Transported from
One end of the earth
To the other
Like gems chosen for migration
To parts unknown
Surfacing unexpectedly along the way
Hidden in landscapes on foreign ground
Intertwining with indigenous finds
Grass, rocks and mud.
Echoes of voices
Songs from afar
Embossed into swirls,
Helico-spirals and cockles
Buffeted by winds and rain
Over time
Calcified by the sun,
Or swept away,
Lightning whelks
Vanish into good earth.
Even among snips of frost
Purple grapes or
Leaves of grass,
A good rebirth.
Absorbing unfamiliar vibrations
From new surroundings
Tucked into the bark of a eucalyptus tree
Or nestled into the folds of a toadstool
A chestnut, removed
From its casing
Replaced by a snail shell
Incongruous in its difference
Set into the beach
At the end of the world
Does the prickly shell
Long for its sea of birth?
Does it pine for the lapping waves,
The granules of sand,
The low tides of home?
Healing Pilgrim 
Lovely, Amit 🙂
makasih! where are YOU in the world these days?
Beautiful, thank you!
Will you be carrying stones on your Camino? … or shells? or something else?
Did you write this as you walked? Were there times on the Camino when you felt that you were in ‘a place outside time and space’?
I wrote bits, jotted down ideas of images and phrases.. but it all came together after I’d been to the beach. Definitely, there were times that I felt suspended outside of both, removed from.. !
Yes. I can imagine that.
oooh, Amit, this gave me a tingle (that’s a good thing btw!) as I read it I glanced over to the basket of shells I have close by, all gathered from the beaches of Bali. I love the idea of leaving a trail of shells…..so very you. Beautiful.
Ahh, I see you too understand the significance of keeping shells nearby! I feel that shells hold an energy and soul that gets transported via tides to the places they need to land at… a new home.
We cross so many borders in a day, invisible lines, that shells and stones can help us mark the intersections–and chart new maps that create new homes. Perhaps?
Possibly so, certainly food for thought.. thank you for sharing…
beautiful, i felt transported!
Shells have a beautiful way of doing that… 😉