Calming Coral

Since Beau has been wearing the steel dragon ring I gave him, to think of me when we're not together, and as a sort of talisman or symbolic protector, I asked him for something I could wear to think of him. He was understandably nervous about choosing something, since I have pretty decided opinions about jewelry, but, on Chanukah, he gave me this beautiful little coral ring. Beau being Beau, he'd done a lot of research and had found that, during the Victorian period, when gems were all said to have special meanings or powers, coral was seen to protect one from fears and anxieties. If you knew me, you'd know that this was the perfect present then: coral for calm. Calming coral. It's also just... pretty.

I went for a walk, something that can still quite painful with my injury, and found myself seeing and photographing coral everywhere. Doing so did indeed reduce my fears of pain and made the pain a little easier to bear.

A study in contrasts: this elegant house, now chopped into many individual suites, and this little shack, now a very popular cafe. I found the handicapped "push to open" button kind of symbolic and even ironic, since I've had to push and push myself during my recovery to open the world to me once more.

Living here, one really comes to appreciate the beauty of clouds. They bump up against the mountains and get stuck over us, in all their variations and oppressions.

What could be more beautiful?

 And so, from the micro to the macro, coral style, I bid the day adieu.