Tiny Tuesday. : : Memento

In the process of making this picture, I found that my phone actually made a better job of it than any of my cameras. I'm not sure if that is a comment on me as a photographer or on the iPhone camera....

I survived the dentist this morning and now have a mere vestige of my tooth.  By the time he removed the old crown and the large amount of decay that was underneath it he had to 'build up' the remains with something and didn't want to put a temporary on it for fear of pulling it off.  I'm glad that the tooth is in the back of my mouth for there there is nothing left of it but a little stump which would not be at all attractive if it were in front. I only have to live with it for two weeks when I go back for the new crown....

I decided I deserved to treat myself to a facial after all that, and in the course of removing my necklace and rings I realized that the reason I practically never take them off is that they all have stories to tell that are important to me. I didn't get them all at once, and acquired them in different ways from different people, yet they seem to have a sort of organic symmetry that is important.

These little charms on a chain all have writing on them
The one on the left says: 
"Be the change in the world you want to see" 
-Ghandi
The one on the right has a real photograph of two little girls on it with tiny gold angel wings painted on. It says:
"The soul is here for its own joy"
-Rumi
Those seem fairly self explanatory. What I also love about these two charms is that the quotes are hand written and neither charm is larger than half an inch. 

The one with the cross-like symbol says "Tempus Fugit". It is difficult to read...one of those things that you see it immediately once you know how to look at it. It's a negative space thing...  There is an old family story about OilMan saying Tempus Fugit when trying to get the whole family into the car and Dana having a dream about trying to get down the stairs and out of the house when OilMan was slowly backing out the driveway saying "come on, come on...tempus fugit" and the front door falling off its hinges! You probably had to be there....and we were. Many times. He doesn't say 'tempus fugit' anymore, he just says, "I'm going to back the car out..."

The last one has a cherub on the front. On the back it says "EMMA" who was my granddaughter. She was born very prematurely and lived for two weeks. I was with Dana and Jim, who lived near Chicago, during that time, and it was both the most difficult, but also one of the most special times in my life. It is still almost impossible for me to put it into words, but I still carry the whole experience close to my heart on this little charm which was given to me by Dana and Jim.