Jewelry Connections, Timeless Treasures

I looked at the box he’d just handed me.  It was a shoe box, just an ordinary shoe box.  Actually it was an old shoebox, and the treasures it held, were totally new to me.  As I looked at it’s contents, it struck me that these were the only mementos  I would ever have of the woman I had never met. It was the possessions and timeless treasures, of the woman who lovingly stroked her abdomen while she was pregnant with me.  How proud she was  so long ago, knowing that soon she would become a mother.  Something  that she had waited her whole life  to experience, and that experience only lasted a week, before being taken away. In the box were  those treasures, just a small but significant representation of the stories of her life, stories I would never hear. Each piece I looked at, provided an opportunity to imagine, how it may have been in the life of my mother.

The box was filled with jewelry, overflowing with beads, many had broken free from their design, and were scattered throughout the box.  I feasted my eyes on the colors, shapes, textures, and designs I saw in this box. I imagined the places they would have been obtained, and the fun my mother must have had as she built her own jewelry box of treasures. I saw a glimpse of her past, one I couldn’t totally understand, yet somehow felt connected to.

As I told this story to my new friends, they, not I, came to understand why I had begun to create jewelry many years ago.  How had I missed that connection? Didn’t I realize the relationship with my need to create? How is it I was unaware of my heart trying to connect me to the only thing I really knew about my mother, her jewelry.

I thought for a moment, and realized, that that is what we all want and need, connection. And those places deep inside us, know that, understand that, and seek it out.  Maybe I’m not the only one who could be so clueless about my heart seeking what my mind didn’t even realize I needed. And then I thought, maybe I just need to slow down and connect with my heart to see what good it’s up to, because I could have enjoyed that gift of connection sooner.  Now I can clearly see why my heart and mind sought to create designs with beads that are not just beautiful jewelry creations, but beautiful connections.  In my mind’s eye I can see clearly the potential connection between mother with daughter, daughter with grandmother, and so on.  And, perhaps those jewelry creations may be the curiosity of a granddaughter or daughter who never had a chance to meet the jewelry’s original owner, and they could only imagine the life they lead through their jewelry they hold in their hands.

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