Do you ever find yourself completely lost, but in a really good way? Let’s say, you make a wrong turn and you end up in a dense state forest on a dewy summer morning. You find yourself driving beside a cool and narrow river, and you roll your windows down to take it all in. You’re not sure where you are, you’re still lost, but you’ve also found quite a bit. I love, Love, LOVE these happy accidents (love you too, Bob) in Life. They happen all the time.
This year has offered me a series of new ideas. I’m never sure where the next one is going to lead, but I love losing myself, and simultaneously finding myself in them. Blogging was a brand new idea (to me) and I can hardly believe the new things I have learned. And then I found beading and bracelets.
Have you ever stumbled onto an activity and fallen in love–and then you realize how much of your life has been leading up to that discovery? This happened for me with horseback riding. When I started taking lessons and completely lost myself in the passion I had for this activity, I could trace hints of that passion back to my early childhood. It happened for me with writing, I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t want to sit down in a private spot with a notebook. It happened again for me with beading and bracelets: the way I admire my wrist when I have a bracelet on, the way I used to string beads as a girl, the way I long for a delicious piece of arm candy. Sometimes, I wonder what’s next. I think maybe I’d like it if all of these interests would surface at once, so I could play with them all! But, I would probably be overwhelmed by that kind of eruption, so I’m grateful for the way Life unfolds.
So, in this last week, I’ve lived hunched over in a world of creation between my eyes and my fingers with gemstone beads flying in and out of the picture. It’s been wonderful. I’ve made bracelets for myself, friends, family, and even my first customer on Etsy! What Love! And I’ve gotten really good response. The gemstones I use are of the Earth and they come with attributes: they add joy, courage, luck, prosperity, and rhythm, among many others. Once I clean them, bead them, and tie the bracelet off, I smudge them.
Smudging is a Native American tradition that involves burning white sage. The white sage is said to release any negative energy on the material (object, person, or room), which is released and recycled back to positive. The white sage smudge then brings forth and activate the positive ions–bringing alive the stone’s best ideals.
I think each smudge stick is simply beautiful.
White Sage Smudge Sticks
I love this so much that I’ve purchased my own supply of smudge sticks. I sell them with my bracelets, wrapped up pretty and neat.
These are fantastic for a Feng Shui energy-cleansing too! Visit my Energy Shop on etsy if you’re interested.
I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Until the next time I pull my head out of the beads, dear friends!
On Love and Life 