A tranformative experience of realizing the self
I have been making jewelry for over 25 years and my work has always had a beauty, a delicacy and intricacy but it is only in the last few years that I feel that I have connected my work with an intention.
I had a transformative experience in 2009 when I took my first folk style belly dance class. I, as many women do, always would look in the mirror and pick myself apart, focusing on all the things that I disliked or wished were different. Even though I had gone through a physical transformation of losing 100 lbs I still focused on the negative in my appearance. The first time I ever danced (and I was never a good dancer, I always felt self-conscious), I was doing a move called "figure eight hips", and it was as if my body and my heart "remembered" how to do something that they always knew how to do, even if my brain didn't. I remember looking in the mirror, my shirt tied just under my bust and my yoga pants pushed down to expose my lower belly, and instead of seeing things that I had always perceived with at best frustration and at worst anger, what I saw in my reflection, with the graceful and fluid movements, was beautiful. I remember actually thinking "that is so beautiful" and startling myself realizing that I was talking about... ME! I suddenly had an epiphany, my moment of truth. I realized that I am not the sum of my parts, my body is more than "too this or not enough that", it is instead a vessel for the expression of the self - the beauty and grace and joy that is within all of us as women. We aren't beautiful because of the way we look but instead because our bodies and faces are infused with Who We Are from within - and we are all beautiful, simply because we exist.
This was an incredibly powerful feeling and want to share it with every woman that I meet. I feel that all too often we pick ourselves apart and think terrible things about ourselves and it is difficult to remember Who We Are. I realize now that I can communicate my appreciation for the beauty that is within every woman by making my jewelry a reminder to her so that every time she wears it she knows how beautiful she is.