Intaglio Blues

So my lovely sister Barb gives me the most incredible necklace for my birthday last year. It's a beautiful vintage chain, with this incredible pendant--one side is a carved intaglio, I believe in carnelian, and the other was just empty--obviously looking like it once had something in it. Along with the necklace she sent me a crystal that fits perfectly over that space, and some glue...with the idea of finding something special and putting it in there. I love that! A personalized necklace! So not only do I love love love the intaglio dude, but the other side will be just as special when I figure out what the heck to get in there.

Now this is not an easy task for someone like me. Getting something in there is just so...permanent. I am always changing my mind about things, so that is a daunting task indeed! My sister suggested a 4 leaf clover. Now where in the world does one find one of those?? At least for me, it's not so easy to go out and find one. I remember combing through the clover as a kid, but never any luck. (obviously no luck, I never found the 4 leaf clover!) I could have put my kids' hair in there or something, but eeeeu. Besides, that's the kind of thing you do when someone dies. Thank goodness, no one is dead, so I'm not doing that. I had thought about putting some sort of pretty material in there, but what? Then it dawned on me...I had bought some beautiful Asian silk to cover my keyboard that's up in my little song-writing studio. It's black with beautifully stitched butterflies. It's a long story, but butterflies are my thing and of course black goes with everything. :-) Plus that material sort of symbolizes success to me, since I have sold a song I had written for the first time in my life, on that keyboard! Hey! This actually has MEANING, and God knows whatever goes in that locket has to have MEANING. Nevertheless I STILL hemmed and hawed over this idea...until I saw some amazing glass pendants in a jewelry case yesterday that had that sort of material in them. That made up my mind, and this very morning I got to work.

It just so happened that there was the perfect sized tiny butterfly I could cut out of that material that fit exactly in the circle of that locket. I carefully cut it out, glued it in just right, snapped that crystal into place with complete satisfaction. Gorgeous! It's exactly what I want--a beautiful colorful butterfly on silky black fabric, absolutely stunning encased in glass surrounded by a sort of rose-colored vintage gold. (anyone who knows me well also knows that I LOVE something inside of something....it's just magical...) I did it! I made the decision, it's in, it's perfect.

Then it dawns on me. I get a sick feeling in my stomach as I turn the locket back over and realize that when the intaglio is right side up, spinning it means the butterfly is--*gasp*--upside down!!!! I should have glued it upside down to have it come out right when it spins around. A sign in my adult life why I was never good at geometry. shit. The Virgo-must-have-order person in me is not happy.

Realizing this is messing with the entire order of the thing, I yahoo Cory with my tale of woe. His response is, "life". At first I was irritated because, being the Coreman and the one who can figure anything out, I thought MAYBE he'd have a solution. But then I had to laugh... isn't that just the perfect response?? That IS life, isn't it?? Just when you think you have it all figured out, you realize that something will always be just a bit askew. That's just the way it is, and we just have to learn to live with it. We must soldier on. We must learn to just shrug our shoulders and laugh a bit, as our butterflies are askew. (or our breasts, as the case may be) Man, am I deep this morning, or what? (Stephanie, I guess it's my turn to have a rabbinical butt!)

I think I'll have another cup of coffee and ponder this a bit. Then I'll put on my flawed yet perfectly beautiful locket and go out into this crazy askew world.