solitude

Wish Box Necklace
• • •

Jax Beach - July 2008
• • •

Just as the soft rains fill the streams,
pour into the rivers and join together in the oceans,
so may the power of every moment of your goodness
flow forth to awaken and heal all beings,
Those here now, those gone before, those yet to come.

By the power of every moment of your goodness
May your heart's wishes be soon fulfilled
as completely shining as the bright full moon,
as magically as by a wish-fulfilling gem.

By the power of every moment of your goodness
May all dangers be averted and all disease be gone.
May no obstacle come across your way.
May you enjoy fulfillment and long life.

For all in whose heart dwells respect,
who follow the wisdom and compassion, of the Way,
May your life prosper in the four blessings
of old age, beauty, happiness and strength.

Traditional Buddhist Healing Chant

stormy weather

Jax Beach - July 2008

• • •

One morning, when the air was misleading and mild with hope, I saw my mother standing beside the forsythia. The blossoms had just begun to open, and were now as much yellow as they were green. The branches tumbled into the yard, heavy with the weight of flowers and leaves, and there was my mother, all alone. She was smoking a cigarette, the first she'd had in years, since her cancer had first been diagnosed and treated. Her hair was dark and thick, and she hadn't bothered with a comb or a brush. She was crying out there, beside the forsythia, but even if she hadn't been, I would have known. Certain things need not be said, and there's nothing, not a whispered prayer, not a sacrifice, not a payment of any price, that will change what's about to happen.

excerpt from The Rest of Your Life by Alice Hoffman

after the storm

Jax Beach - July 2008

summer

Bracelet

pink motel

Neptune Beach - July 2008

Two monks were arguing about whether their train was moving.
One said: "Our train is moving."
The other said: "The train on the tracks next to us is moving."
The sixth patriarch happened to be walking down the aisle.
He asked them: "Would I look good in short shorts?"

This Mind is Buddha by Mike Topp

Mystic Quartz Necklace

pink sky

New Smyrna Beach - July 2008

out of stillness

I was happy enough to stay still
inside the pearl inside the shell,

but the hurricane of experience
lashed me out of hiding
and made me a wave moving into shore,

saying loudly the ocean's secret
as I went, and then, spent there,

I slept like fog against the cliff
another stillness.

Rumi

whatever

July 2008

• • •

Whatever happens. Whatever
what is is is what
I want. Only that. But that.

Prayer by Galway Kinnell

Daytona Beach

July 2008

Firefly

Firefly Necklace

Water

July 2008
• • •

The sea is unfolding scrolls
and rolling them up again.
It is an ancient diary

the waves are murmuring.
The words are white curls,
great capitals are seen

on the wrinkled swells.
Repeated rhythmically
it seems to me I read

my own biography.

from At Truro by May Swenson

Wire Wrapped Moss Aquamarine & Watermelon Tourmaline Necklace

Blood Red

Red Necklace

Snap Shot

• • •

I imagine Nice and topless beaches,
women smoking and reading novels in the sun.
I pretend I am comfortable undressing
in front of men who go home to their wives,
in front of women who have seen
twenty pairs of breasts today,
in front of silent ghosts who walked
through these same doors before me,
who hoped doctors would find it soon enough,
that surgery, pills and chemo could save them.

from Snap shot of a Lump by Kelli Russell Agodon

Sunrise

Dawn Necklace - Smoky Quartz & Citrine
• • •

• • •

Since you have left, death draws us in.
A fish quivers on rough sand until its soul leaves.

For those of us still living, the grave
feels like an escape-hole back to the ocean.

This is no small thing, the pulling of a part
back into the whole.

Rumi

Lightening Storm

Moonstone, Labradorite and Garnet Necklace

Dawn

My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he sails away
To be gone forevermore
And the waves will take him in again
But he'll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
With a clean heart
And my song in the wind
The sand will sting my feet
And the sky will burn
It's a lonely time ahead
I do not ask him to return
I let him go
I let him go.

except from Calypso by Suzanne Vega

Dividing Line - July 2008
Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach

gate

Old Sea Horse Inn Gate

• • •

I was a wing in heaven blue
Soared over the ocean
Soared over Spain
And I was free
Needed nobody
It was beautiful
It was beautiful

- Patti Smith

Midnight

Neptune Beach

• • •

Midnight Necklace
Black Tourmaline & Wire Wrapped Mystic Labradorite

Ocean

Atlantic Beach
• • •

The ocean sits in the sand letting its lap
fill with pearls and shells, then empty.
A bittersalt taste hums, This.

Rumi

Mermaid's Tear - Wire Wrapped Aquamarine Necklace