ON SHELLS

A slow walk along the shore. Not a destination. Just movement. A kind of walking meditation. Eyes down, shoulders soft, listening to the tide move in and out.

I don't really believe you find shells so much as they find you. There's a recognition. A quick breath. You pick it up. Turn it over in your hand. Examine the ridges, the chips, the color. Decide whether to keep it or toss it back.

And then the quiet weight of a few shells in your pocket. The soft clicking sound as they bump into one another. Proof of attention. Of time spent.

Later, you give one away. No wrapping paper. No occasion. Nothing calculated about it. Just the simple act of pressing it into someone's hand. The exchange is small, almost nothing and yet it touches something deep. The connection of giving and receiving something so simple feels pure to me.

Shells hold memories in a way few things do. Travel. Beach days. Gifts from friends. From my kids. From my husband. Even strangers with likeminded hearts. My treasured souvenirs.

I find them everywhere, on my desk, in my car, in the pockets of sweatshirts long after summer ends. My grandmother loved shells too. She kept them in beautiful glass jars lining her shelves and would let me play with them when I visited. When she passed, they were the first things I asked for, one of nineteen grandchildren. I didn't want the silver or the furniture. I wanted the shells.

Maybe that's what I love most about them. They carry presence. They mark a moment. They ask nothing.

xx lp

Lisa Popp is the founder and creative director of Stillwater, a small-batch women's apparel brand she started in Los Angeles in 2014. Everything is designed in her Los Angeles studio and made locally. Runs Deep is her journal.