My Mother's Jewelry

My mother loved jewelry. Most of it was costume jewelry, but back in the day costume jewelry was beautiful. After she passed away I ended up with most of her jewelry. On days when I was lonesome for her, I would pull it out and look at it and remember her. It was bittersweet.

This summer during garage sale season, I happened upon three memory frames for a very reasonable price. I bought them immediately, knowing just exactly what I was going to do with them. Flash forward now to November.  I made the above for Christmas using mom's old jewelry. It turned out beautiful, much better than I even expected. There are some very unique pieces on this one, and I smile every time I look at it. There is a sewing machine key, very ornate old-fashioned key, the ballerina pins, earrings that she wore fairly often. There is a gold leaf with a pearl that is actually from Avon and has a small cream perfume dispenser inside that still has perfume in it -- it still smells like mama. There's some beautiful brooches and some stray earrings. I had to make the hard decision of taking the backs off of all of them. I kind of hoped to be able to keep them wearable in case somebody wanted to wear them one day, but it just didn't work. Anyway, I suspect those days are long gone.

I hope they become heirloom pieces for the family one day. Now I think about it, maybe I'll put a small informational sticker on the back for future generations.

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It amazes me how the little things can bring comfort, like looking at a piece of jewelry, or a Christmas ornament made long ago. Many will say they're just things, and they are, but they're precious things filled with the energy of loved ones. They bring good memories filled with love and light, and more importantly comfort. I do not believe when we die it is the end. I believe we are all light and energy, and that we choose to come into a physical existence. I believe when we die we are just released from our physical bonds. We still exist, just in a very different form. While we are in physical form we are here to learn what it is to love and to care, without guilt or negativity. We learn to forgive ourselves, and others. Forgiveness is a powerful force.

I believe that we choose our lives, before we are born, with a great deal of guidance and wisdom. Some of us choose harder lives than others, choosing to experience things that we do not understand, or did not understand, in previous life experiences, in order to choose more wisely – – to learn that we can do no wrong, that everything we experience (no matter how horrendous) has a reason and purpose, and to remember who we truly are, and in so doing, why we are here.

I don't understand it all, and sometimes it's very, very hard to experience, but I know in the end it is all for good. To those of you who are born-again Christians, I am as well. I know some of this flies in the face of what we have been taught, but I'm not so sure it does. One night I was laying in bed and I thought to myself, "Why are the people in my church not getting better?" The next thought that came into my mind was, "How big is your God?" My life has never been the same after that moment. God is beyond so much more than what we are taught, and that's saying something. So much more.

I hope this holiday season is a blessing for you all. When things get really tough, just ask yourself, "How big is my God?" You just might be surprised by the answer.