Memories

I started making beaded jewelry about two years ago. It was a hobby that I would have not afforded in time nor treasure until I had my own space and the freedom needed to be creative. Memory wire is a funny and wonderful product. It holds its shape; it comes in two sizes for either small or large wrists and wonderful bracelets can be made from it with your selection of beads. 

Life is like a memory wire bracelet. Memories are held in our minds; complete with the colors, textures and sparkle of the original moments in time creating a pattern; similar to putting them on a wire. In jewelry making, once we put the beads on the wire in the pattern that we desire and if we make a mistake, we have to remove ALL of beads that we have placed BACK to the mistake. I see this just like my life with verbal abuse. Everything that I have "added" to my life since understanding verbal abuse has changed the pattern of my life. It is almost as if I am "recreating" my life when I am making a bracelet.

I was just at a "beading store" in my area yesterday where I picked up pieces for some jewelry that I am making. There are SO many choices to chose from; natural gemstone, "cut/faceted gemstones", synthetic/plastic/acrylic beads, crystals, pearls, "lampworked" beads, glass beads and even clay and fabric beads. I call a beading store a "woman's hardware store". My son says that I "get mesmerized" when I am in one and I can  lose all track of time while in my creative "fugue".


In writing my memoirs, I see each memory as a bead that I must creatively connect to others to recreate images of my life. The memories may be "good" or "bad" but all of them are needed in my book just as they are needed in our lives. The "rough and the ugly" will add balance to the "sweet and the silly". Every bead, every memory is worthwhile. When I look at my jewelry, it says that "I am free from abuse" simply because IT is. This creative outlet has been a therapy for me and has allowed my hands to freely express what my heart could not find the words to say.