Turtles With External Ears

A good day off. Stayed up late after work, still got up in time to go to a Baha'i Cluster 19 Reflection Meeting at Clover Park, which was all kinds of fun, then ate lunch somewhere en route and stopped by my friend Loyd's to pick up a Gem Faire weekend pass he had for me. Then I went to the Gem Faire at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall.

If you've never been to the Gem Faire, it's a feast of color for the eyes, featuring strings of beads of stone or pearls or filigree metal, fossils, amber, sparkly gems, beads in the shapes of animals, and a multitude of trinkets. It can be quite a sensory overload. It stimulates my creativity, even more than a trip to the fabric store. In the last few years, with the depression, crowds have thinned, there are fewer vendors, and prices have dropped. Almost everything is 20% to 50% off.

I decided to buy a small gift for myself and looked at several rings the right size for my pinkie [the one that doesn't already have a Baha'i ring on it] and couldn't decide between silver rings with black onyx, green onyx, lapis lazuli, or a deep purple amethyst. Amethyst is my birthstone but usually it's a washed out purple that I don't care for. Deep purple is unusual.

I had the proprietor hold aside several rings while I circulated and percolated some more, and let my conscious and subconscious mind think about the choices. I became disoriented as to which shop I had been at before. Finally relocated "my" folks and selected a ring with a coral stone. The orangey-red or reddish orange [depending on the light] is the right color to cheer me up.

I also found some gorgeous jasper for a new set of prayer beads, to coordinate with smaller carnelian beads for in-between. It's easier to touch an individual bead if there is a space in between the major beads. I also found a large hunk of rock with a polished giant ammonite to set on a bookshelf. Can't get enough of ammonites: the wonderful spiral, the ancient creature a proof that religious truth is relative, exhibiting the principle of the harmony of science and religion.

Came out of the Exhibition Hall into a blinding state of affairs--actual sunlight. So I took a walk around DeCoursey Park in the sunshine. I decided to use the green glass pendant with the Greatest Name, which Enayat gave me on my birthday on Pilgrimage in Haifa, as a centerpiece for the prayer beads. It is a wonderful memento of Pilgrimage.

So now I have a beading project to do, on top of the things I already needed to do: shop for groceries, pay bills online, etc etc etc. Plus finish the scrapbook from Pilgrimage which I started with Pearl on the dining room table, and which is not a one-day project, and is now taking up the dining table.

Oh, yes. Turtles with ears? They have some carved from jade or bone or whatever at the Gem Faire.