I’ve adopted Vivid Living as my motto.  You might wonder what that means to me.  For me it means greeting life head on; appreciating all aspects of life, even the uncomfortable ones; being open to all the interesting things going on around me; and being open to sharing of myself with those around me.

For me, making jewelry that demonstrates my take on the world and wearing it to share my inner self with those around me helps me enter into conversations with those around me.  It can be unsettling to share who you are with people around you, but we shouldn’t have to feel that fear.  Often, our discomfort is self-inflicted.  However, part of Vivid Living is being open to hearing opinions of other people and learning more about them.  That requires that we are open to listening to what other people have to share.  We don’t have to agree, but I’ve often found that in listening I’ve also learned to appreciate other points of view.

As a woman, I’ve often felt the weight of people’s expectations of what a woman should be.  As the mother of a trans daughter, I’ve seen how people’s ideas of what gender a person should be can alter the path of a person through life and can potentially lead to her death.  In all situations like these, I feel that open discourse and listening could ease tensions.  We could all benefit from working to find the similarities between us rather than the differences.  We are humans together on this planet, and we all want to experience joyful and comfortable lives.  For me, working toward this type of life for all is part of my Vivid Living.  As a visual species, we use our clothing and accessories to communicate about ourselves to other people.  Jewelry can be a door into Vivid Living.