From time to time we might experience something that leaves us agasp. Something will take your breath away and leave our mouths agape. The clam is no exception and should be revered for all eternity.
It’s hard outer shell is almost impenetrable. It holds life so delicate, soft and silky tight inside where it cannot be damaged. The clam is the beholder of everything that’s sacred and beautiful.
It lives in a world that’s full of motion and wetness but holds within itself a living breathing entity that has a life of its own.
The body of the clam is unlike anything else about it but is so encased in its protective walls so as to make sure the delicateness and sensitivity of the life that it hopes for is kept just so, in safety and warmth. The soft parts of the clam include a nervous system with knots of nerve centres called ‘ganglia’ located along the body of the clam. They breathe hope and life into the soft silky skin of the mussel like interior workings of the body.
They don’t have eyes per se, but clams do have special photoreceptor cells. A sudden change in the light means something bigger and hungrier is above them. The fastest clams can dig an inch per second making it a right little mover, given the correct set of circumstances and settings. Yes, the clam lives in hope. Hope that when it nuzzles it’s way through the silt and sand, that it finds that spot again where it can relax and soak up the rippling motions of the enormous body of a swoosh that surrounds it.
When they open they are naturally filter feeders and open to try and feed and respire, but if tapped should close indicating they are still alive, so gentleness is called for when they are opening up.
Although clams and mussels can also produce pearls, they don’t do so very often. Most pearls are made by oysters, and they can be made in either freshwater or saltwater environments. As oysters grow, an internal organ called the mantle uses minerals from the oyster’s food to produce a substance called nacre. When the clam does produce it’s Pearl which dictates that it has had a nourishingly full existence, hope is shared with the throat of the man flesh that eats it.
