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Happy Sunday y'all!
(Yes I spent 5 years of my life in Texas and I like the way they talk there...lol)
I've been thinking about peace and jewelry and influences a lot today. I lost a pinkie ring again. They are the hardest ones to keep because when the weather gets cold they get loose and on those fingers, they seem to slip off really easily without being noticed as I go through my day.
I surround myself with the symbol for peace. My jewelry is no exception. I have 2 rings with that symbol, a pendant, a wall-hanging, and about 5 of them on a string that I like to hang from the ceiling throughout my place.
You would think that my parents are hippies. Far from it. My Dad fought in Viet Naam. My mom was a pretty straight laced nurse.
Scott was a hippie (minus the smoke, acid and any other drugs). He and I used to talk a lot about peace, especially inner peace and how if everyone in the world would work on their inner peace, then we would have peace in the world.
Imagine.
His influence on me was (and is still) profound.
That influence is really the beginning of my obsession with peace.
I want to share with you a little story.
A few weeks before Scotts passing, I had begun to look for some kind of peace pendant that wasn't clunky and wasn't hanging on a hemp rope. Something that was ladylike but not overly girly. I have always been a tomboy after all, and besides, peace is a strong thing. It's always precarious, and takes real resilience to maintain on the long term.
The search had already been going on for a couple of months when one day I was walking for exercise in the mall in Lakewood. Scott had already been out of his body for about a month and a half by that time. It was about 10ish days from Christmas and on my first lap of the mall, I was drawn to check out a shop that had popped up in there which had all kinds of booths for crafted items of all kinds. I ignored that initial drawing, thinking it was my own temptation and that I was not there to shop but to get in some exercise. On the second lap I ignored that drawing in sensation again, the same on the third. On the last lap, I caved and went into that space. I knew by then that Scott was directing me there because he wanted to show me something.
To be honest, I was a little bit frustrated that he wanted to show me something here because I was trying to be serious about my exercise practice, and this was totally mucking up my flow. But I began to look through the booths carefully, with my eye out for something that would trigger a memory with him or anything else that he might want to show me. Since I has stopped walking, I wanted to be sure I didn't miss whatever it might be, while internally I was hoping to be on my way again quickly so maybe I wouldn't feel like my momentum was totally shot.
I had spent 20 minutes, looking, looking, looking, and was starting to think that I was just making up things in my head and had ruined my walking momentum for nothing. That maybe he hadn't really directed me to this store. I almost just walked out without looking at the last 2 booths. Then I heard him say: "don't give up. Just keep looking."
In the very next booth I came across a pendent that was a basic silver plated peace symbol connected on a jump ring with a symbol of love. As soon as I saw it, I knew that was what he wanted me to see. I bought it and walked out of there wearing it.
I wore it every day until the finish was wearing off and it started looking funky. Then I walked over to Creekside Jewelers in Golden and asked them if they could make me one like that in solid sterling silver. I used some of my inheritance money to pay for it, and consider it a gift from Scott. The only time I have not worn this pendent is when the chain broke after 7 years and it was lost for about 24 hours.
This morning I was thinking about all these things. Then a friend of mine pulled a card for me today and told me about it with a picture and messages on Facebook messenger. The card she pulled was titled "Peacemaker". (Pretty cool how things like that work, huh?)
That got me thinking about my personality and my work. And it made me wonder, what came first? Was it the idea that I was becoming a more peaceful person that drew me to that first pendent? and then all the other peace symbols that surround me? Or is it that wearing that pendent and the rings imprinted me with that peace? Is it a little bit of both maybe?
They say that if you write something on a container of water, that changes the makeup of the water inside that container. Our bodies are supposed to be 60% made up of water. Does wearing a pendent with a particular symbol on it every day for years change the makeup of our DNA's? I never considered that when I first put this pendant on, and when I first started surrounding myself with peace symbols. Now I wonder.
Thank you each of you for being here and for putting up with my wildly all over the map ramblings in the newsletter. I can only imagine what it is like for you, to open this email, never knowing what kind of path you will be led down in your minds and imaginations as you do. Each one of you is AMAZING. I appreciate you all.
Have a glorious week!
Peace,
Amista
