古时候的人要用贝壳来做钱币，在我手心躺着的实在是一件艺术品，是舍不得拿去和别人交换的宝贝啊！
在海边捡起一枚贝壳的时候，里面曾经居住过的小小的柔软的肉体已经死去，在阳光下，沙粒和海浪的淘洗之下，贝壳中生命所留下来的痕迹已经完全消失了。
但是，为了这样一个短暂和细小的生命，为了这样一个脆弱卑微的生命，上帝给它制作出来的据所却有多精致，多仔细，多么地一丝不苟啊！
比起贝壳里的生命，我在世间停留的时间和空间是不是更长更多一点呢？是不是也应该用我的能力把我所能做到的事情做的更精致，仔细，更加一丝不苟？
请让我也留下一些令人珍惜，令人惊叹的东西来吧。
在千年之后，也许也会有人对我留下的痕迹反复看，反复把玩，并且会忍不住轻轻地叹息：“这是一颗怎样固执又怎样简单的心啊！”
作者：席慕容 摘自《英语世界》1998年第1期
A Shell
At the seaside,I picked up a small shell,which was tiny but hard and delicate.
Among the whirling lines on it, there scattered some little spots, deep or dim.
If you observe it carefully you would find that around each spot there were some more arranged in a circle.
The ancient people used the shells as currency. Yet there lay in my hand was indeed a work
of art that I would hate to exchange with other people.
Long before a shell was picked uo at the seaside, the little soft body, which used
to live in it, had been dead and the wash of sunshine, the sand and the waves had
wiped out the traces of life in the shell. However, the shelter made by God for
so short and tiny a life, so tender and humble a life was so delicately and carefully built.
Isn't the time of my stay in the world much longer than that of the life in the shell?
Isn't the space of my stay in the world much larger than that of the life in the shell?
Then shouldn't I try my best to do the things in my power more delicately,
carefully and conscientiously?
Let me leave soemthing behind that can be treasured, marvelled at.
Maybe in a thousand years, someone will also watch and enjoy the traces
of my life over and over, with a soft sigh from the heart:"What a simple yet
unyielding heart it is!"