A very long time ago, when I was 20, I was wandering the halls of the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. When I came upon Botticelli's Birth of Venus, I was struck with the enormity of the painting and her presence. I had studied art for a couple of years already and loved her. She was just the most beautiful woman who came from a seashell, with red hair, that I had ever seen. I was always fond of water, shells and red hair. I even deepened the red in my own hair once in high school, a few years before we formally met. I think I felt some kind of affinity with her. I knew her spirit then too.
When we met she was in a gallery lit only by sunlight, at least that is how I remember it. Her massive presence is now housed in her own gallery with other Botticelli paintings.
Ten years after she and I met, she surfaced in a marble statue in Cancun. I took her home with me. She graced many places and now stands quietly beside the relics of an interest in silver. I don't think she minds. She still is a vision of loveliness. While my beauty is on the wane, she is ever present in her youthful essence, a goddess.
In all this time, all these many years, she has never stepped out of her shell. I did.
Copyright 2011 by SheilaTGTG55
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