Welcome to the New Year!  This year I’m going to focus on Vivid Living.  To me, that means not only being your authentic self but also portraying that to other people.  However, that also means accepting or at least listening to and other people and trying to gain some insight into what they are about.  That doesn’t mean that you need to agree with everything people are putting out there.  But it does mean taking the time to try to understand how they’ve reached their point of view.

You might wonder what this has to do with jewelry.  Well, I see jewelry as a form of communication.  It’s about communicating your unique qualities to the rest of the world.  We shouldn’t be afraid to let people know who we are.  Unfortunately, the world has started to impose judgment without compassion or empathy.

As an introvert, I often find I have conflicting emotions between wanting to stay hidden in the background while desiring to be heard.  I’ve decided to come forward and be heard.  And also to listen!  Many people have no choice in who they are, where they were born, what their economic status is, what their race is, what their gender is.  People should not be shamed or stereotyped for these qualities.  This is something that I’ve always believed but that has become much more important to me in the last few years as my trans daughter has left the safety of her familiar environment and entered the larger world at the time that there is a lot of few and misunderstanding about her and who she is.  The lack of listening and empathy often leads to fear, anger, and hatred.  I find that I am no longer able to stay quietly in the background but I pushing myself to step forward to speak about the benefits of tolerance and listening and empathizing instead of retreating into fear and confusion.

I encourage others to join me in inviting us all to take a step back from our knee-jerk reactions to unfamiliar situations and take the time to get to know other people.  All people are really fascinating mixtures of experiences and information waiting to be unwrapped.  We should enjoy the fact that we’re not all the same!