lily putts

Collecting shells on the beach is a tradition children remember forever.

25 years ago Topsy, my cousin’s grandmother, would walk along the beach in front of their family beach house at South Golden Beach with my cousins and they would collect shells. Topsy has since passed away however, when the family sold the beach house, my cousin Ben kept some of the shells they had collected over the years. They now sit in a bowl on his coffee table in his beach house which he recently built 2 streets away from his grandparents old beach house.  I am sure everytime he and his brothers look at those shells, they are reminded of those special times with their grandmother on South Golden Beach.  Ben will no doubt continue this shell collecting tradition with his own children one day. 

I have photographed the shells as above.

I believe in Tradition. I believe in following the thoughts and actions passed down to me from the older generations in my family. I live my life based on the things my family has taught me and I hope my boys will inherit this same way of life.

Over the holidays I've had so much spare time to think about what is most important in my life and every time it comes back to my family and the way we live and have lived since I was a little girl.

So, this year I am going to talk more about tradition here on ABT. I am going to post a series called A Family Tradition. I hope it inspires you to think about the traditions and beliefs your family has instilled in you and maybe, if those traditions have been forgotten about, you might be encouraged to re-instate them.  Or maybe you might be inspired to establish some new tradtions for your family to embrace.