April 10, 2021 Saturday Afternoon, Emerald Isle Retreat
The Perfect Broken Shell (brief intro choosing shells)
Aaron: My blessings and love to you all. I am Aaron.
The ocean is in your hearts, in your minds, in the sea of blood rolling through your veins. The ocean is everywhere. When you see the wind blowing the tree branches, think of an ocean wave, as the branch bends gently back and forth. All Ocean.
I’m going to keep this short—I will have a chance to give a longer talk later—this is just to say hello to you, and that I am delighted to embark once more on this adventure we call “Emerald Isle Retreat”. It’s wonderful to have you here with me, with us.
Traditionally at the Emerald Isle retreat I give each person a broken seashell. I walk on the beach, or Barbara does, or someone who does it for her, and collect beautiful shells that may be fragments. I ask each person, as they receive their broken shell, to see both the broken and the perfect shell.
So, lacking a beach—let me see how I can do this… I don’t know where to find the broken shells that I saved. Give me a minute, and then I’m going to want to screen-share… (screen sharing)
I can scroll down a bit, and I’d like you just in your mind to select your broken shell. Can you see the shells? So, I’m going to scroll down very slowly so you can watch them and perhaps choose a shell that speaks to you. Just take a picture of it in your mind…
(scrolling)
When Barbara looked earlier, she said, “Oh, I want this one, because I can so completely see the perfect shell. And there’s a little part of me that says, oh, it needs to be full, it needs to let go of the break.” And shifting her gaze to the beauty, the colors and the shape, I asked her to see the perfect shell right there with the broken. And that’s what I’m asking you to do…
(scrolling)
Can you see it perfect, finished? Nothing broken in it, even with breaks and holes. It’s just the way it needs to be. Here is one with a hermit crab living inside… This one must be a children’s book, “Sammy, the Little Broken Shell”… Here’s one with the snail still living in it. A live shell, but a piece of it has broken off…
(scrolling)
When we think of shells, we think of seashells. But here we have an eggshell…
(scrolling)
Exquisite in its color…
(scrolling)
If you later google “broken shell” and go to Images, you’ll find all of these. I’m not going to go through all of it; there are hundreds of them. “Broken shell”.
The perfect shell and the broken shell. The perfection of this year, with all its challenges. I trust you can see this year also as a broken shell.
(ends scrolling)
We’re going to go around and have each of you introduce yourselves. I look forward to spending time this week with you all and sharing the magnificence of broken shells, perfect shells, and the place where nothing is broken. The gratitude and joy for the perfection that’s right there in the brokenness.
We’re introducing ourselves. I am simply Aaron. You may call me by that name. Of course, not my true name, but a useful tag to call me by. Quite simply, I am a dharma teacher. I am a teacher of the path of awakening and the path of love.
I’ll pass the body back to Barbara, the retreat facilitation back to John…
Barbara: Thank you, Aaron…
(They continue with introductions, not recorded)