Talismans


In my perfect Eden, I would be an artist. All day I would write and craft. I would write whatever and whenever the inspiration struck - for however long I wanted.

My crafts would be handmade trinkets for people that I care about - nothing museum quality, but certainly able to be “lovingly” displayed. Reading and writing are my first love and my oldest friend. No matter the menagerie of amazing people that make up my friends, I will always crave that kinship I have with the written page.


There are several projects I have created for friends that I am proud of - little pieces of my adoration graphically displayed. One such piece actually returned to me in a way, and is keeping me company here in Japan.

ND was having an important birthday, one that deserved a special gift. Like me, she would be happier to receive a funky handbag or a well worn, but loved, book, over something expensive and shiny. What made the quest for a fabulous gift all the more difficult is that ND is the “it” girl. She has a crazy, bohemian style that I could never pull off but makes her look fabulous. Everything she cooks, which she creates in her head, turns out delicious. Her “messy” home is always the perfect mixture of chaos and comfort that allows complete relaxation.

I ended up creating a piece of art for her, one that was all about her. It was a little cabinet filled with miniature things representative of her and our times together. I really liked the outcome. What I liked more was that she did something similar for me. On a visit with her between trips to Japan she produced a small bag. Inside of this green, silk bag were many trinkets - or talismans as I know now to call them. She had gone and gathered little things that were to become the physical reminder of our friendship. She also gave me a book - with a bookmarked passage. It goes like this:


“...Amulets, talismans, and charms abound in the lives of everyone in every time and place. They are physical signs of relationships with people and places and experiences. They are symbols of connection and reconnection, union and reunion with what is sacred to us.”

-Robert Fulghum


I have since removed the items from the bag and created a little display of them, along with a few other things that are important to me. Now, the top two shelves of my bookshelf are a little collection of talismans; a place that I can look to for a reminder of many of the paths I have crossed. At the end, these little things, these ticketstubs to my life, while small, with be the greatest measure of my achievements.

I love you ND! Thank you for the gift. I treasure it.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surgery

I started my period when I was 11 years old.  I remember going to the nurses office at school that day because my lower back hurt so badly.  It felt like nothing I had ever felt before, but was a feeling I would become quite familiar with.  Imagine there being a bowling ball inside your body, resting on your tail bone.  It causes pressure just sitting there.  That was a good day.  The bad days were when that bowling ball was being ground into my back - from the inside trying to find a way out.  Later, when laboring with Lily, that same feeling was there.  Lily was upside down and her head was resting on my tailbone.  The contractions that drove it deeper into the bone were killers.  So all those years of imagining my inner bowling ball were not that far off! In those first few years of cycling I would often seek out the hardest surface I could find and just lay on it, trying to flatten my back into it.  Our living room floor usual...
Read more

$$Tokyo$$

If you google the most expensive cities to live in worldwide you'll find Tokyo somewhere in the top 10.  I looked at a few last night and Tokyo was actually in the top 3 on 5 of the lists.  Now, one list claimed that you'd have to shell out $5,000 to get a 2 bedroom apartment in Tokyo.  I'm sure there are plenty of such apartments, but there are also less expensive ones so you can't believe everything you read. But, it is true.  Living here is very expensive.  We rent an 860 ft2 apartment for approximately $1100 a month.  If we want to rent a parking space that is another $115 a month.  Our utilities, including internet but with no cable, are over $400 a month.  All that for utilities and our apartment does not even have central air or heat!  Groceries, gas, train tickets, they all add up too of course.  Groceries vary in price from store to store and season to season, but it is not uncommon to see 4 apples for $6 or a quart of milk fo...
Read more

Parenting is not for the Timid - This is my Biggest and Worst

Parenting brings obstacles and challenges like none that we've ever dealt with before.  My first was when my son was born.  He was the most difficult baby I'd ever come across, and I got to be with him all the time .  I remember how defeated and discouraged I was, and how I thought to myself, "I can't do this.  I can't parent this child, make him happy, stay sane.  I don't even want to".  I didn't know how I was going to get through his infancy and this obstacle felt like the greatest obstacle of my life. We got through it, I got through it.  Time passed and allowed me to forget the depth of the struggle so that when the next challenge arose, that one felt like a new biggest and worst.  The new challenge was now the thing that was going to end all civilized thought in my head.  Again, we got through.  Time and again, challenges, the biggest and worst, have arisen.  Each time I have thought, "How? What am I supposed to do with this...
Read more