Oh, my.
This came in the mail today:
When SG and I were in Maui in September, we spent a couple of afternoons at a beach reserve called Ahihi.
We snorkeled together, holding hands and kicking past some of the most purely beautiful scenes I have ever put my eyes on. And there were sea turtles, too, which made me really happy, even if it’s a little bit of an adrenaline rush when they’re jamming through the water, swimming right at you and you know they can’t really maybe see you, exactly, since you’re not to the side of them. Still, though, when I need a little happy, closing my eyes and recalling a sea turtle swimming along the ocean floor beneath me does the trick no problem.
When I got cold, because I am a big baby, I sat on the shore and just looked while SG went out to dive. I started noticing all of these tiny pieces of beach glass on the shore, and the more I saw, the more started appearing. Like they’d all been invisible, but then just decided to start glowing. I gathered several handfuls, stooped over for a good hour or so, and because the glass isn’t supposed to be there, it was okay for me to bring the best pieces home with me. My favorite bit from that day was a tiny milky clear one; a perfect little wobbly heart.
So as we were packing up at Ahihi and I was putting the glass I’d gathered into the pocket of our dive bag, I found the garnet ring in the photo up above. Wendy made it for me earlier this year, along with a pearl one, as a custom order. I’d been missing the garnet ring for a long time (probably since an earlier beach trip when I’d stashed it there so I wouldn’t mess it up in the ocean), and while I was thrilled to find it, I was so disappointed to see that it had broken from being smashed about in the bag. But the break was just where the stone was set on the ring base, and I could see that it was fixable.
After we’d been home awhile, I finally got in touch with Wendy, and asked her if she could please repair the ring I’d broken and make something, a ring, maybe? from my little beach glass heart. So I packed it up and sent it off and she got it and said that sure, she could make a ring, and how would I like it to look? I asked if she could make it like the other two, so I could wear the three of them together (or two or one). And not only did she not charge me to fix the garnet ring, she did such an incredible job on setting the heart ring. It’s perfect. I put it on when I got it out of the mailbox today and an hour later my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. And this is embarrassing to admit, but I put my hand near my mouth and I actually whispered to the garnet ring about how very much alike our paths have been.
Oh, it is absolutely lovely. What a wonderful memento, Jen!
Thanks 🙂