It was lunch time and the family and I were at a restaurant. While going through the menu to order our food, I noticed a man in a wheelchair two tables away from ours. His familiar silhouette intrigued me to peek slightly towards his side and indeed it was him, our uncle who has passed away some years ago. I was briefly taken aback but somehow my consciousness has trained my brain to differentiate reality and dreams apart. Yes, it was a dream and I was still in it.
I slowly approached him and eventually realized he was accompanied by his daughter; my cousin. When I pulled the chair and sat next to him, he asked me: “Do you know the story of the broken seashell?”
I honestly didn’t know the story but somehow I nodded and almost immediately, another reality transformed before my eyes and I was at the beach. It was almost sunset as the lights that shone were violet and yellow. The mood was extremely mellow and while I was watching some seashells washed ashore by the waves, I could hear my uncle’s voice saying: “Work hard but don’t lose yourself.”
And then I woke up to the sound of my phone alarm.
As I look up to my room’s ceiling, trying to process the dream I just had, I realized that I went teary. It was as if the dream was incited by an internal conflict which hasn’t been resolved and another reminder for my ongoing self-empowerment journey.
Even as I was getting ready to work, on the road to the office and finally settled at my desk, my mind kept on echoing the words from my late uncle. And thank goodness for Google. On the search tab, I typed, ‘Broken seashell story’ and the first result on the page was from Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Below are some of the excerpts from article:
“We are all broken in some way, but we still possess beauty and uniqueness beyond belief… Yes, it’s true, while the perfect shells are few and far between, there are many more broken shells left lying on the beach that go unnoticed. If we take the time to look more closely at the broken shells, we can find beauty in their imperfections, and maybe even learn something about ourselves” – Debbie Jaskot.
The final realization then hit me. I never thought I’d ever admit this: I am broken, I fully accept this fact, but I am beautifully broken. Thank you for visiting me in my dreams, Pa Amit. May Allah bless your soul and grant you Jannah, Ameen Ya Rabbal Alamin.
Al-Fatihah.
@billyhayson 