Who Says Material Girls Can’t Meditate? 6 Lessons I Learned From Jewelry

When I was a child, I loved untangling my mother’s jewelry.

She’d give me a clump of necklaces and I’d sit for hours working out the tiny knots one by one until the cluster gave way, releasing the intertwined strands of silver and gold.

It was so satisfying, working my tiny fingers, my mind in limbo, maximum concentration, the world falling away...

It was my first encounter with meditation.

Fast forward 40 plus years.

I notice glass vases filled with surplus jewelry at my local Goodwill.

The delicate treasure boxes stir something in me so I buy one and a hobby is born.

I buy old jewelry, process it, and sell, for fun.

Cleaning vintage pieces, bringing them back to their former glory, makes me feel like a museum curator.

Pulling broken pieces apart and sorting the pretty beads, is as calming and satisfying to me now as it was when I was a child, each tiny bead an individual work of art.

Now and again I even come across a piece with real gold or diamonds.

And I still love detangling big clumps.

In these quiet moments, hands busily working, eyes bedazzled by pretty things, I slip inside myself.

As I sort and sift and deconstruct and reconstruct, I learn.

I have epiphanies.

There’s unexpected wisdom in these accidental meditations.

Every action a metaphor with a lesson for life.

When I see a broken piece of jewelry, my first thought is: “What can I salvage?” Are there, charms? Beads? Clasps? If I can accumulate enough of even the smallest findings, someone will see the value and be able to use them.

We have so much in the west, but we waste so much.

Just because something appears to have come to the end of its life cycle, doesn’t mean it has.

My goal is to throw away as little and repurpose as much as possible. Nothing gets thrown out if it can have a second life.

The less you waste the more you have.

Most things have added value if you look at them a different way.

Sometimes it takes hours to sort through a box of jewelry, but if I go slow and look close, I find hidden treasures.

More than once, I’ve found real gold and diamond pieces at the very bottom of a container of costume jewelry. If I rushed I would miss it.

Everything takes time. If you try to rush through life, you might miss something important.

Often when I advertise whole pieces of jewelry they don’t sell, but if I take them apart, they sell instantly.

By deconstructing them, I free them from imposed expectations. From that point on, the possibilities are limitless.

They can become something different. The components can be reformed into anything by anyone.

They're free to be reborn.

Even though we’re conditioned to see things only one way, everything is more than just what it's supposed to be and it’s up to us to be brave enough to deconstruct what isn’t working and reimagine everything — including ourselves and our world.

People think broken jewelry worthless, but to me it's mystery and possibility.

Necklaces and bracelets with broken clasps, single pretty earrings, tarnished silver with hidden hallmarks. These are the rejects that I rehabilitate back into society.

I find the worth in these oddballs and expose it.

There's no such thing as useless, worthless, or hopeless, in people or objects.

Period.

My little hobby might sound like slow torture to some people, but I love it and I don’t care what anyone thinks.

I do it because it soothes me and I like it.

I enjoy researching the pieces I find, what the stamps mean, and who the designers are. I’m at a point now where I have an eye for quality and that’s kind of fun.

I’ve found a way to make it pay for itself, but even if it wasn’t paying off, I’d probably still do it and figure out another way around the cost.

Do what you love even if it seems weird (as long as it’s not immoral or illegal, obviously).

That way, if the money follows, that's great. If it’s going to be a business or artistic pursuit you’ll need to enjoy it to stick with it long enough for it to pay off.

Most projects take time to get off the ground, so at least you’ll get to spend time doing what you enjoy.

I used to sell jewelry for wearing but it accumulated too fast and there wasn’t much of a market for it.

Once I found ways to capitalize on the broken pieces, I realized I could create new opportunities within the framework of what I was already doing.

I just had to rethink it.

You can probably create new opportunities with what you already have or do if you think inside the box differently.

I’m not a Yogi, sitting on a mountain thinking deep thoughts. But my accidental meditations have led me to some interesting food for thought.

Sometimes when you open up your soul and let your guard down the Universe can slip a little wisdom to you on the sly.