Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

And AFTER Them, Too

When I married, I wore white pearls. And when I divorced, I purchased a strand of black ones.

It was the only time I’ve ever bought myself better jewelry. It was an impulse. They were the perfect divorce gift. Although not usually a jewelry person, I love them and all that they celebrate.

There is nothing proper or pristine about them. They are neither trite…nor polite. They don’t stand at picket-fence-perfect attention or march virtuously across my skin. No Pearls of Innocence, these.

To me, they are smoky, exotic. They are sultry sunset-lustered and night-nacred. They are city lights in the rain. They are oil slicks on blacktop after a race. They are a Caribbean adventure. They are the sea just before sunrise. They are the anti-June Cleavers.

And they represent a promise to myself, my black pearls, that I will take me for better or for worse, that I will honor me all the days of my life. And that I will stay true to myself, always.

The simplest things are often the truest.~Richard Bach

11 comments:

  1. Tammy this sounds like a great basis for a C.S. story. It's full of very evocative emotions and images!

    Pat
    www.critteralley.blogspot.com

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  3. Tammy
    You sure can comingle those words. You astound me, and yep, black pearls make a statement just as your words have. You write with such impact.

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  4. Hey Tammy! I realized my "attempt" to be both congratulatory on your amazing writing and make fun of myself at the same time, only came across sounding ridiculous. I'm sorry! That's why I deleted it! I am ALWAYS so impressed and amazed by your writing! I am one of your biggest fans, if not THE biggest!! Hugs!

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  5. Wow--thank you, Pat, Linda, Becky, and Donna!!! I'm so moved by your kind words. And Becky, the only thing that's ridiculous is the thought that there could be anything to make fun of in your beautiful writing. Hugs back!

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  6. this gave me chills! and then you topped it with Richard Bach! talk about glorious icing!
    ~ K

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  7. THAT gave me chills! love the look and sound of black pearls!

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  8. Thank you, Karen and Green Monkey! And thanks for visiting!

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  9. Hello, found you through BON. I think that was almost the perfect gift to give yourself for that change in your life.

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  10. Thanks so much, LaNeshe! Thanks for stopping by!

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