Letting The Real And Rare Shine

In this moment is an opportunity.

An opportunity to connect to your body and breath.

To be present,

Settled,

Centered.

Inhale,

Exhale.

Welcome to a hit of hope.

Recently I decided to go through my jewelry box.

I wanted to get rid of some old jewelry and I wanted to add a small diamond,

The birthstone of both of my children,

To my grandfather's wedding band.

It felt good to invest money in this piece of jewelry that I love to make it mean even more.

Inhale,

Exhale.

Then I got the ring back.

The jeweler did a good job,

A beautiful job really.

So why did I feel so unhappy?

It took me a while to figure it out.

The jeweler had done too good a job.

Yes,

He had put the diamond in like I wanted but he'd also coated my grandfather's wedding band which was white gold with rhodium.

Rhodium is a pure white metal that gives jewelry a more brilliant and pure white appearance.

A ring that had been simple and real suddenly felt slick and fake.

It was too shiny and it just felt wrong.

Inhale,

Exhale.

The ring was perfect,

Brilliant.

I couldn't complain because there was nothing wrong with it.

That was in fact the problem,

The character,

The uniqueness,

The realness was gone.

Inhale,

Exhale.

How often do we struggle to be perfect,

Shiny,

Brilliant?

How often do we coat ourselves with superficial surfaces so we look and act just like everyone else?

It might be makeup or filters or the jobs we choose or the muscular armor we lock ourselves in so that our surface is always perfect and our emotions and real and unique selves can never sneak out into the world and maybe make things messy.

Inhale,

Exhale.

As with so many things,

This experience comes down to choice.

I could choose to chalk this up as a failure and put that ring in my jewelry box and never wear it again.

But if I did that,

It would be like condemning the real and the rare to stay trapped and hidden forever.

I could also choose to wear that ring as often as I could,

Letting daily life rub off that rhodium plating,

That fake coating,

So that over time the worthy and unique thing inside could be revealed.

Inhale,

Exhale.

We each get to choose how we will live our lives as well.

Will we coat ourselves and keep the real buried and hidden?

Will we change who we are just to look like everyone else on the surface?

Or will we strip away what is false and shine in a way that is real and rare?

Inhale,

Exhale.

Be real.

Stay rare.

Live light.

Live light.