| THE EPISTOLARIAN |
As we head into summer, it's time for all of us to head to the beach. The ocean beckons!
This week, the crab made its debut as a wax seal.
I would not have instinctively chosen the crab. Yet the more time I've spent with it, the more I find myself returning to its lesson: softness and strength are not opposites.
The crab develops a hard shell, but its belly remains soft. Periodically, it molts, releasing its shell entirely and venturing onto the ocean floor vulnerable and unprotected until a new one forms.
It does not become less sensitive in order to survive. It simply grows what it needs to protect what matters, then returns to the water.
I have spent much of my life believing that sensitivity was something to overcome. That if I could just become a little tougher, a little less affected, life would hurt less.
The crab suggests otherwise.
For those of us who feel things deeply and act anyway, who speak up, stay present, and continue caring even when it hurts, the crab offers a quiet reminder: you do not have to become less sensitive to be strong.
The Crab Seal is available now.
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The Blue CrabThe Blue Crab is Maryland's crab, which makes it my husband's crab, which makes it personal. Of all the crabs in the sea, I find them the most elegant. And those little swimmer paddles... I can't get over those little swimmer paddles.
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Lobster & ButterOn the Amalfi Coast, my sister Betsy was called "mozzarella" for her alabaster skin. A sunburned friend fared differently. A man looked her over and said, "Mmmm, I could just dip you in butter. You're my little lobster." We still say it to each other. Lobsters don't mate for life, but when one molts and is completely soft and vulnerable, its partner stands guard. Someone who stays when you're at your softest, someone so sweet you could just dip them in butter.
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The Oliver Pluff ShipThis ship was designed for and after the logo of my favorite tea company, Oliver Pluff & Co. out of Charleston. After falling completely in love with it, I asked if we could release it within the Hastings Collection. They said yes. The ship has always felt like the right metaphor. We can't control the wind, but we can reorient our sails. The sea will do what it does. We just learn to navigate it.
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The LighthouseModelled after my favorite lighthouse in Tourlis, Greece. The lighthouse doesn't rescue anyone. It doesn't move, it doesn't chase, it doesn't reach. From a place of groundedness and elevation it simply tends to its light, and that light saves those who see it. Be the lighthouse. Tend your light.
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The Hastings MermaidThe mermaid belongs to two worlds, above water and below. She has the ability to call and to understand the ocean's depths. She represents emotional depth, intuition, and the unconscious. This mermaid is also a little magical. I designed her nearly to completion a few years ago before discovering she is actually one of the Hastings family crests. She found me before I found her. She proves what I have always believed: follow the creative impulse. It knows something you don't yet.
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Allegory of HopeThe Anchor Represents hope. This seal exists to hold and to send one thing into the world.
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Winged CorrespondenceThe swallow is a bird of the sea. They travel great distances but always return home. Sailors traditionally tattooed one after 5,000 nautical miles and another after 10,000, a mark of what they had crossed and survived. They are messengers. Of love, of hope, of the certainty that what you sent out will find its way back.
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Looking forward to a season of salt, sand and sun,