Lesson from a Snail

Two mornings ago I saw a snail moving slowly across the wall outside my home.  It had rained during the night and I think the snail was trying to make sure it was in a dry place. I was struck by its beautiful shell and took a photograph of it. Then, after I'd gone back inside, I realised that I hadn't been affected deeply enough by this living being. So I went out again and looked at it more closely. I saw how its shell gave it security, a home, even as the feelers were reaching out and going forth into the wide world. 

In keeping with a wonderful radio play by Martha Baird, "The Inside and Outside of Winnington Snail," and the Siegel Theory of Opposites, I saw I had something deeply in common with the snail. I want to be secure and also reach out and be affected by the world beyond. (And much more could be said about both desires.) I love how studying Aesthetic Realism every object, every being, is a means of learning about oneself as one sees it more truly.  

Here is the second photograph I took. The "upper tentacles" or "ocular tentacles" which I in my ignorance referred to as "feelers" actually have eyes at the end! I was affected by them as I took the photograph, and I hope that shows. I know it's better than the first one I took.