SFC PROMPT: Inside the Seashell

I used to be afraid

of getting my face wet

I was afraid of Ladybugs and falling down the stairs and forgetting

how to get home

even though I didn’t want to be there.

I used to be afraid of

giving the wrong answers to questions like how do you do, what street is that on

can you give me the directions?

I used to be afraid of being alone and left to the rats and the dust and cobwebs full of dead and dying bugs.

And then one day someone said to me,

” You have a tough shell, you can face anything, take anything, beat anything back! You are so amazing!”

Sure I thought, bang it on my tombstone- not that it matters, I doubt you’d mourn my death. I won’t mourn yours.

Besides, shells are not tough.

They are shaped and carved by the world around them

and they are so very

fragile.