When my Grandmother Violet passed away I found a lot of her papers she’d written in our attic amongst her things my mom gathered from her home. At her funeral she had requested the poem “Desiderata” was read aloud. It was the first time I’d heard it, but each word pierced straight through my aching heart like a salve to a wound that just kept itching. It felt like all the guidance that was left unsaid. The next season of life I spent a lot of days walking to work, and for some reason butterflies surrounded me many of those walks, maybe it was the gardens of the houses I was walking by had plants they loved, but I also felt so strongly like it was the embodiment of my grandmother in her angel form. I tattooed the last verse of Desiderata on my ankle to keep me grounded as I felt my spirit longing for her connection from heaven. “ You are a child of the universe. Same as the trees and the stars, you have a right to be here. And whether it’s clear to you or not. No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” Although I loved the entire poem, this verse stood out to me and I kept repeating it to myself. When I was reading through my grandmas papers I found one on “Transcendentalism” I read each word and soaked it up like honey drips, it was so nourishing and made the way I see the world make sense. My grandmother Violet, was so beyond in so many ways, and did not assimilate herself to the “times” she was studying transcendentalism and writing papers on it, selling them to newspapers as a single divorced mother of 5 before any of those things were socially “acceptable” anyways, the last piece of paper of that paper was the exact verse I have tattooed on my ankle. Just that verse. With two ## on the line after, before “hashtags” were a thing. This pair embodies that magic. That story. This lineage of hers I’m so honored to be a part of. This one is for Grandma Violet and her butterfly reminders that she’s always with me, transcending time and space and physical forms.
Pink feathers, Grandma Mary’s golden discs, and long pearly beads, paired asymmetrically with faceted pink and crystal glass beads, and a butterfly pendant. My grandmas were all so styleee and unique, and they respected each other from across the branches of my family trees, this pair brings them together and is a tribute to all the wonderful things they’ve taught me and continue to teach me from above.