I’m not much of a ‘jewelry’ person.  I wear my simple gold wedding band on my left hand and a silver, lapis, and turquoise ring I bought years ago at Mount Rushmore, on my right hand.  The single diamond in my engagement ring was knocked out decades ago when I was doing laundry.  My ears aren’t pierced.  And most days of my life, I would look pretty silly wearing a necklace with my jeans and fleece.  But, I remember when I was a kid, I loved looking at the diamonds in my Mom’s jewelry box.  Rows of dangly earrings and intricate brooches sparkled with what seemed like hundreds of tiny diamonds.  What a treasure!  It didn’t matter to me that they weren’t ‘real’ diamonds.

Melting snow during Thanksgiving weekend created a thick fog that condensed and froze on everything.  The Cedar trees were encrusted with glittering ice ‘diamonds!’

The ice-covered Hydrangea reminded me the most of the earrings I admired in the jewelry box–clusters of tiny diamonds and flower-shaped dangles.  What a treasure.

The berries of the Gray Dogwood, fall food for the birds, were replaced by diamonds of ice.

Those of you who know of my non-proclivity for jewelry also probably know of my love for Emmylou Harris.  I was introduced to Mark Knopfler’s voice and song-writing from their album together, All the Roadrunning.  You know how at certain times in your life a certain song ‘speaks’ to you?  The second song on this album spoke to me—it was on repeat and played loudly in the quiet of my car or the solitude of the house for many months.

I dug up a diamond / rare and fine / I dug up a diamond / in a deep, dark mine

If only I could cling to / my beautiful find / I dug up a diamond / in a deep, dark mine

My gem is special / beyond all worth / strong as any metal / or stone in the earth

Sharp as any razor /or blade you can buy / bright as any laser / or star in the sky

I had been to the bottom of the deep, dark mine—that spiritual journey that shakes up all the beliefs that hold your life together.  When you are digging and clawing for something to make sense of all the pain.  When you’re covered in the dust of disappointments and heartache, and it’s so dang hard to breathe.  And then I realized I had found a rare and fine diamond, and it was me.  We lose what we were and become something new.  Each one of us is special, beyond all worth—what a treasure!  Take your place, Bright Star, and shine.