Under the sea stocking stuffers

 As some of you know, a few short weeks ago I was in the Bahamas with my family. My husband and I took our boys on a cruise to Nassau and Princess Cays. Nassau was beautiful, but I think I left a part of my heart in Princess Cays. The island is privately owned by the cruise line and unlike Nassau, you are encouraged to relax and take in the scenary without being pushed to shop and peruse the land. When you arrive at PC, the giant cruise ship can not bring you all the way inland so everyone has to water taxi over to the island. After you disembark the water taxi, the main area is filled with hundreds of chairs, a bar or two, and a few coves with buoys for everyone's safety. Plenty relaxing, but I was after seclusion. My eldest chose to nap on one of the chairs with a virgin pina colada and my younger son and husband explored with me a bit before returning to the more populated areas. I swam alone in this secluded area of the island until it was time to get back to the ship.  

      I don't know how to explain the experience I had standing alone, in the crystal clear waters of the Carribean, with tropical fish swimming around my legs but it became clear to me that water is and always has been my church. I was born and raised next to the ocean and I'm always happier in or near water. Historically, I am not really a person who knows how to "relax".  Not on a massage table, not on a holiday, not even in a hot tub. In a way, I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop and (re)acting accordingly. It's taken me years to realize not everyone functions like this (whoops). Standing in the water at PC is one of the few times I've ever truly felt at peace. Water has always been healing for me but this day made me feel small. Not small in a way that other people can sometimes make you feel, or in the typical way that is a negative experience - I felt small in a way that reminded me that my HUGE worries, my HUGE problems, my HUGE baggage... is not EVEN a "drop in the ocean". It showed me, as clear as the water, that any anxiety/depression/whatever are issues that exist in the brain. The coral at my toes were not frought with it, the fish had no inclination - it is mine, and mine alone, and and although my experiences are real and the impact is seems every lasting, the world as a whole is not burdened by it and maybe one day I won't be either.  

   I find that it's hard for me to hold onto the feelings and memories of good experieces. I took a few photos and videos of PC to help "bring me back" after we returned home. Unfortunately, before they uploaded to the cloud, I broke my phone on the island. I am 1000% more upset about losing said photos/videos than I am having lost/broken my phone. It's not at all an exhaggeration to say that I nearly cry every time I think about it. In the water that day there were lots of gorgeous, bright yellow brain coral patches in the area I was exploring. There was also an incredibly large grey/black one out of the water, that was dead and had a huge chunk broken off of it. Since it was already dead and broken (and only because of this), I decided to take a palm sized chunk home with me. The texture on this coral is so beautiful and unique and the inside differs from the outside slightly. Brain coral can grow outward at a rate of approximately 3.5 millimeters per year, reaching over six feet in diameter and living up to 900 years. The oldest known brain coral is a 18ft-wide brain coral off the shore of Speyside on the east coast of Tobago in the Caribbean is 2,000 years old.

    I wish you all could have experienced this day/feeling with me. I hope you all experience peace this holiday season, no matter what that looks like. I molded the hunk of coral and created these pieces with the texture. I've tried to share here with words (okay, maybe too many of them) how special this project is to me and what it represents. Naturally, you won't feel as deeply about it, but I felt it necessary to share where the texture on these necklaces came from. With these pieces, I wish you peace. 

     Although I may work with this texture again in the future, these pieces are one of a kind and ready to ship. They would make unique stocking stuffers and if purchsed now - 12/20, you will recieve free priority shipping. 

Thank you for reading, you can find pricing below. 

Natual sapphire, antiqued, sterling chain- 140

Natural appatite, antiqued, sterling chain- 120

Natural flurotie, antiqued, steel chain- 120

Natrual aquamarine (March birthstone), shiny, sterling chain-115

Custom cut synthetic opal, antiqued, sterling chain-120

Shiny with light detailed antiquing hydroquartz doublet (manmade), sterling chain- 115