Sunday, August 06, 2006

"Tell Me About Your Rings..."


"Tell me about your rings..." he said so quietly, staring at my hands and the mismatched collection of meanings displayed there. This stranger, that I had known for only an hour or so curious as to the stories displayed on my fingers. Why did he want to know? What was he looking for? I looked down at my hands through his eyes..."What love story goes untold here?"

Instinctively, I reached up and touched my love beads, old and oiled with the patina of a thousand thoughts, touches, moments. I'll tell you about my rings, sweet stranger, but these trinkets, closest to my heart, that is where the love story lies...at peace....at rest....

For 19 years, this tattered string of leather (oh, it's been reincarnated a few times!) has been tethered to my neck. The three little clay love beads, once a swirling kaliedescope of color, now muted and sepia at best, were sculpted at my kitchen table, late late at night. Paige and I on an endless mission to spread peace and love to the world at large. We wove peace grapevine wreaths in those days , did string paintings of the world at war with peace watercolored across it's face. We believed. If we loved, we hoped, we prayed, we dared.....peace and love would come to all.

For a million moons, only the little love beads, strung like lonesome soldiers, dangled here. The soldered welded Peace symbol was a Sunday afternoon gift from my neighbor, Joe. God bless my Joe. I was hot, and tired, and trudging through knee high grass fighting a lawn mower with an adolescent attitude. I was overwhelmed with life and bills and the endless, never ending,rocky road trip that my life had become. In the blazing Sun, with tears and sweat fighting for first rights on my cheeks, I screamed at the sky above, at the random birds....at the top of my lungs....."I just want Peace!" The raspy choking lawn mower I was sure had camoflouged my impromptu rant. I kicked the dirt and kept mowing.

Joe never explained himself that day. He didn't have to. When I rolled the mower to the gate, he met me in the driveway. The little Peace Symbol still warm in his hands. I touched it. Felt it. He passed it to me. The first trinket to join my love beads. In the weeks to follow, it began to rust and I worried. Joe had sculpted this for me on a hot Sunday afternoon and I wanted to wear it forever. I rubbed it. Never ever took it off. The rust gave up. In the end, peace wins....

There is a tiny little "I love you Mom" charm. I can still see my daughter's eyes, 8 years old and so excited she had to help me unwrap her little gift. I hope that for as long as she lives, she can still see the look in my eyes. Love.

An Italian horn. A gift from a friend when all my good luck spells were broken. When peace was lost. When I had not yet discovered the yellow butterfly of San Marino. She dug it out of her jewelry box. To her, it was the yellow butterfly. To me, it was and always will be, reassurance, a reminder that hope is sometimes all you have....don't ever, ever let go of it.

Four hearts in the shape of a clover. This little one is etched with the markings of sand and time, a little jewel lost to sea and washed up at my feet by the tides. A precious promise from Paige, lost almost immediately, I ached and searched and finally, too many beers later, cried. Not because the little charm was lost forever, but because I wouldn't have it there, to touch, when I needed to remember, to hold real, her thoughts. And so it was meant to be, that when we least expected it, a little glint of silver glittered, and in the miles and miles of salty sand, I reached down and there she was. The mermaids charm.

May our lives be blessed. With simple things.

Peace and love

Love story to Joe in the January archives of www.Justgivemepeace.blogspot.com
Self portrait in love beads and Joe's precious Peace symbol all over the pages of Just Give Me Peace

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gotta love those simple things

Anonymous said...

I love your necklace.
And your words.

Anonymous said...

But tell me about your rings, sweet stranger

SHE said...

beautiful in every way

not just your words, and how poetically you select and arrange them

-but you.

we need more souls like yours living in this world

thanks for sharing

singleton said...

she....bless you sweet girl, I'm so glad you traveled far enough to meet Joe.....my precious, sweet friend Joe.....No longer living in this world, but giving every single day....the blue eyed gift of peace, laughter, and friendship. How blessed I've been.
peace~love
over and over again....
for us all.....

eric1313 said...

How blessed you are, indeed, blue lady.

You bless me with your friendship, now. I've never met you face to face, and yet I have met you soul to heart to mind. Your writng speaks so much of who you are and what you love. Your art speaks in every language at once and offers complements to everyone's eyes who stops to see what the who ha is about.

It's worth the look everytime.

Bless you and peace out.

singleton said...

eric....yes, I feel blessed also. Seeing and listening with hearts, and souls, like becoming friends in the dark....aware of every sound. I can honestly say, my friend, feels like we've spoken this language before, traveled these pages before, known each other much longer than the porch parties tell.

peace~love and thank you for joining us, for the circle every strong.

eric1313 said...

We are a strong circle. You are somebody I've known deeply and in ways not understood, but felt all the same. The porch parties introduced me to that. Heck, the first lines slipped back and fourth back in June, that told me who you were and was totally right about it.

Thanks for the talk last night, sometimes, I just need to speak all that negativity out; and you didn't get upset and leave, you just countered me at every turn with your simple philosophy.
Peace~Love
Clink!

singleton said...

eric....we all have stuff in our lives, that kept inside, brewing, stewing, grows....Sometimes just letting it out, airing, sharing is all we need to do. Sometimes just saying it out loud and hearing our own words makes it feel or sound different, or easier to tackle. Sometimes you just have to vent. We all do. That's what the words rant and ramble are all about!

Spit it out sweet friend, empty your suitcases, so the load is lighter, then keep rolling. You've got a great destination in sight.....
clink! To getting there!