Those who look for seashells will find seashells; those who open them will find pearls.
That's it. Curtains. Off to the races. Treetops. Seashells and balloons.
There are fossils of seashells high in the Himalayas; what was and what is are different things.
You are being suffocated by tradition. . . Why don't you say, 'I am going to build a life for myself, for my time, and make it a work of art'? Your life isn't a work of art ---it's a thirdhand Victorian whatnot shelf, complete with someone else's collection of seashells and hand-carved elephants.
I have the world's largest collection of seashells. I keep it on all the beaches of the world. . . perhaps you've seen it.