New Moons Old Friends

I went home this past weekend to finish off a few loose ends like hair stylist and dinner selection, but the main reason was that my very good girlfriend Diane, who is one of my bridesmaids and lives in Cali, was in town for some family stuff. She hasn't been able to be here for any bridal shower stuff and won't be able to be in town for the bachelorette party either. So my four best girlfriends from back home asked me to come out so the four of us could hang out in a "bachelorette party" of just us, old school. So I did. :) We simply ended up at Perkins talking and laughing and reliving old memories and enjoying each others company. It's been years since we were all together, all four of us, in the same place at the same time. They had previously told me that what they wanted to get me for my gift wasn't lingerie or anything like that, they wanted to spend money on something for that I would love, something, most likely jewelry, that I'd been eyeing but not buying because it's something I felt like I couldn't spend the money on. Something meaningful. I love, love LOVE amber and jade and have recently also developed a serious love of moonstone. I think these are three of the prettiest gems, with very beautiful colors and physical attributes to the stone. I do know that all three have somewhat mystical connotations put on them by certain people but I don't know the specifics of that and certainly don't put any stock in it. Or at least I didn't.

My very best girlfriends got me a beautiful moonstone pendant much like this one:


And it is BEAUTIFUL. I love it. It's hard to capture what makes this stone so pretty in a picture, but it has to do with the translucent aspect, and the blue sheen that appears when it's in different lights or at different angles. It really is beautiful. And that's why I like it. Because it's pretty. But when my girlfriends presented me with my gift they told me that the woman who sold it to them explained what a moonstone "means". The moonstone has been called the "gem of hope". Primarily a moonstone is known for balancing your emotions. It stops you from reacting from emotion, and helps you center and process. It is also for new beginnings and helps you adjust to change. And it's considered to be for true love, to help maintain passion. It is also strongly connected to women, not in a fem-nazi way, in a femininity way, fostering happiness, gracefulness, wisdom, intuition, understanding, and lots of other motherly attributes (it also has strong ties to fertility and your cycle and such). I was thinking a lot about this and I started to catch myself wishing I believed in the power of this stone. These are all attributes that I want at this point in my life. I started thinking about different medicines and minerals. I began thinking to myself, Self, God made calcium good for you, it affects the body and the mind, the same with so many other elements and minerals found in nature, is it really so far fetched to think that moonstone (which is really just a mineral called adularia) isn't among them? The truth is that I feel like that is a good thought. I know that people who wear magnetic bracelets get flack from Christians, but it works for what it's supposed to work for! There is iron in your blood. It's simply the biology of our creation. The iron in our blood reacts to the magnets and you end up with better circulation. Christians label this as mystical or some kind of Wiccan or witchcraft-ey practice when it's not. And though I don't believe that wearing this moonstone around my neck will make me more understanding or give Aaron and I a better a marriage, I do have to wonder at what sort of biological reaction this mineral might have with my body and my mind (I'm sort of praying against the whole fertility thing since Aaron and I are wanting to wait a while before we add to our family). And like I said, while I don't attribute this stone any sort of magical powers that I will suddenly possess all the characteristics the stone is said to increase, I HAVE decided to use it as an emblem of those characteristics. To remind myself that I want to be hopeful, have balance and peace of mind, that I want to be joyful, graceful, and wise, that I want to be an understanding, nurturing, loving wife and (at some point) mother, a reminder to pray these things into my life and heart.

And as a reminder that one night about a month before I got married, my best friends wished these things into my life and heart, spoiled me with their love, and their hopes for my happiness.