The Oyster

On our trip to Hawaii this year Kaedell and I stumbled into a jewelry store. Boy were we ever a couple of suckers! The guy behind the counter had us under his selling spell in just a little under two seconds. "Just pick an Oyster he said and for 12 dollars you might get a real pearl. I don't know how he conned us into picking two oysters each. All I know is about forty minutes later Kadie and I were walking out of the store with our pearl necklaces we had each spent over a hundred dollars on! Did I mention that Kyle was trailing behind us shaking his head?

We laughed about it and still continue to poke fun at our inability to stand strong against such spell binding selling tactics! But I have to say I treasure my pearl that sits inside a heart and hangs around my neck on a silver chain. I love wearing it. Most of my jewelry that I wear has meaning to me, it's symbolic to me in some way. That fun day in Hawaii I came home with a pretty white pearl and a beautiful blue pearl, and when I wear my necklace I can still remember the day and the beautiful memories I had with my family on that day.

Most of all I think of this poem each time I wear it. Thought it was post worthy! Hope you enjoy it.


The Oyster

There once was an oyster
Whose story I tell,
Who found that some sand
Had got into his shell.
It was only a grain,
But it gave him great pain.
For oysters have feelings
Although they’re so plain.

Now, did he berate
The harsh working of fate
That had brought him
To such a deplorable state?
Did he curse at the government,
Cry for election,
And claim that the sea should
Have given him protection?

No – he said to himself
As he lay on a shell,
Since I cannot remove it,
I shall try to improve it.
Now the years have rolled around,
As the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate
Destiny – stew.

And the small grain of sand
That had bothered him so
Was a beautiful pearl
All richly aglow.
Now the tale has a moral;
For isn’t it grand
What an oyster can do
With a morsel of sand?

What couldn’t we do
If we’d only begin
With some of the things
That get under our skin.

From Harry Emerson Fosdick we read, “The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this. Irritations get into his shell. He does not like them. But when he cannot get rid of them, he uses the irritation to do the loveliest thing an oyster ever has a chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only one prescription: make a pearl. It may have to be a pearl of patience, but, anyhow, make a pearl. And it takes faith and love to do it.”