duality

'every one is a moon,

and has a dark side he never shows to anybody.'

- mark twain

this 'duality' necklace started with the raven bead from mak of maku studios... it had a mythical feel to me, as the raven has been surrounded by legends for centuries and from all over the globe... even carl jung wrote about this bird... unfortunately, the raven often gets a bad rap due to its superior job performance in the natural world as a scavenger... 

the norse god odin had two ravens that accompanied  him at all times... in welsh lore the raven is associated with wisdom... but i love the stories about how the raven brought light when it left the darkness of the cosmos... the light of understanding... and from this, jung came up with his teachings of the raven representing the shadow self, or dark side of the psyche... our dark sides must be acknowledged and examined in the light of our conscious selves... there we find balance...  

the center two rings of the pendant represent coming full circle in understanding... the spiral of the infinite, a beautiful bead by mary ann at linden avenue designs (all glass in this piece by mary ann) & a shimmering piece of labradorite which is thought to enhance clarity of thought... from there we find another glass bead by mary ann that you can see into the depths of ... a white crackle raku bead to counter the dark raku disc and glass on the other side... and a hammered, antiqued sterling blank with 'self' imprinted upon it... reminding us that all facets of the self must be acknowledged to be complete...

a breast cancer awareness bracelet made in sterling with rhodonite and ceramic... the words hope, love and believe are stamped on sterling discs... believe has a fluttering butterfly on it, representing the growth & change that only a struggle can provide us with... 

deep breath...

first of all, i have not lost my mind~

akilah at execumama issued a challenge, a challenge to speak about the things you love about yourself... maybe you should meet her and read about her challenge before going on ahead here... my initial response for her was, 'good for you! you are all of those things and should be proud and pleased that they are all facets of your Self'... but when faced with doing it for me, i faltered... as she says, words like arrogance, narcissism and gloating begin to swirl about your head... we are hard on ourselves - doesn't mean it's not ok to work on things, or find areas you would like to expand upon or improve - i am talking about the not-even-being-your-own-friend kind of hard... we need to remind ourselves of the good in us and what we bring to the world's table...

sometimes i cannot get over how the universe works... i have 2 pieces that have been accepted for publication... but they want a picture - of me... and that has held me up... when i read akilah's post the other night, i decided enough was enough... how could i hold myself up at this opportunity just because i wasn't a beauty queen?

so the first part of this was a revealing of the physical self - at the end of the day, no make-up and not a hair day... just me...

i found some quotes that reinforce the wisdom of my execumama friend...

'self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.'
-william shakespeare

'don't forget to love yourself.'
- soren kierkegaard

i love (heart pounding) my green eyes... okay that one was easy because i just came assembled that way...

i love that i am named after my grandmother... my given name is mary jane... i became maire, because she called me that (she didn't like me being called mj jr, my grandparents believed in the uniqueness of each child)... but the spelling became an issue... my 7-yr-old Self was not content to have it spelled 'mare' because that was a female horse, and i did not want to be associated with the rhyme 'the old grey mare she ain't what she used to be...' i am grateful to the little girl who foresaw that and came up with a solution... and for all of the understandable times that people think i am marie, i am completely ok with that...

i love that i am able to maintain my composure under the most difficult of circumstances - i pass maya angelou's test of how people handle a rainy day, lost luggage, & tangled christmas tree lights... for example - a couple of years ago, at 10 pm while my daughter was finishing an extensive project of making a 17th century diary using candles, calligraphy ink in a bottle and a quill, our kitten jumped up onto the table, sliding across all of the laid out papers and supplies, sending blue/black ink flying everywhere... as my daughter was in hysterics, i was telling her that the woman back then could have spilled her ink one night, not to worry, it would look more human, less perfect... wouldn't you know, there was not one drop of unwanted ink on her tea-stained pages, but her face and arms were covered... she proudly wore her ink stains to school the next day...

i love that people find it easy to confide in me... i don't know why, but it happens... i don't always even really know them... maybe they just need someone who can listen patiently... so i guess i love the fact that i am able to listen...

i love that i am a detail-oriented person who can see the big picture or a big-picture person who can attend to details... this was a little revelation for me the other day... you know how you kind of try to figure out what kind of a person you are, in different ways? as i child i would make dioramas and houses, not for dolls but just because... i would use anything i could find around the house to make tiny little pieces of furniture, phones, decor... it would absorb me for hours, days... the greater scheme began to develop later on... big picture, detail-oriented, either, or... i am both... i am also a libra so maybe that explains it... but it helps me with my appreciation of art and with life in general...

i love that i am a trusting person... yes, i may get hurt sometimes but the odds are worth it... i have met a lot of really kind and interesting people because of it...

the singer des'ree (you know the 'you gotta be' des'ree) has a song called 'i ain't movin' ' & it includes the lines

'loving self can be so hard, honesty can be demanding.
learn to love yourself, it's a great, great feeling.'

akilah started something for me... something i think about but realize i need to devote myself to... how do i raise my children to love, respect and honor their own Selves if i cannot? to embrace their You-niquess? i spend my time talking about what to do for others - and will continue to do so... but you can't get water from a dry well... so it's time for a change...

now...

i challenge you!

your true nature

true to your nature

"if a Queen isn't meant to fly, why does she have wings?"
lessa, dragonflight

in anne mccaffrey's land of pern, certain humans are joined to dragons (this predates eragon by decades) communicating in unspoken form, sharing thoughts & emotions... lessa is new to this world and bonds with the golden dragon ramoth at the time of her hatching... lessa is told that Queens fly only to mate - and the strong lessa begins to change things which allow both she and her dragon to be true to their natures...

while we don't have wings, we each have other attributes that make us unique and special... that define us... people my lean on you for support, count upon you to help, look to you to lead...

i love hero's journey tales... the kind where some unassuming person - like frodo, harry potter, arthur, simba, dorothy - finds him/herself in a position where choices must be made and along the way they grow... i admire the hero... i love and find comfort in the wise one... but the hero couldn't achieve what he/she does without their most trusted allies, their best friends... one of my literary favorites is samwise gamgee from lotr... sam is a kind, unassuming hobbit who openly admits his fears... but he sticks with frodo to the bitter end, thru horror after horror, becoming a hero in his own right... sam would lay his life down for frodo, he is loyal and true... i think those are qualities we all strive to have and want from our friends... sam's nature is exponentially magnified and so his potential is reached...

'the only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.'
- the buddha

this bracelet has beads in it that are certainly a tribute to their creators... a raku bead by mak has white crackle and golden glazes in addition to fine silver pmc... a ceramic bead by barbara lewis is layered in color then carved away to create pattern, texture and reveal the colors (and here, next to the dragon, i think the carving looks like something the talons could have done)... a green girl studios pewter dragonegg bead... gorgeous lampwork by mary ann at linden avenue designs... these beads were custom made after i went back into her sold items... they are called 'granite' and i love the way you question whether they are stone or glass... lots of bali silver, mykonos greek ceramic beads, two great silvered ivory glass spacers from donna at purplepozies, faceted feldspath and a snakeskin jasper drop at the clasp... this bracelet is earthy with color used to highlight that which is found in the glass & ceramic components...

'and i'll see your true colors shining through,
i see your true colors and that's why i love you.
so don't be afraid to let them show.
your true colors,
true colors,
are beautiful like a rainbow.'
- cyndi lauper