Serendipity Shines

Thought for the day:  It's a bizarre but wonderful feeling to arrive dead center of a target you  didn't even know you were aiming for.  [Lois McMaster Bujold]

The stones found in our first scoop of pay dirt.

Ms. Bujold is absolutely right, and what she's describing is what I'd call serendipity, which Lawrence Block defines as Look for something, find something else, and realize what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for. 

Have you ever experienced something like that? Happens to me all the time.

As mentioned in a couple previous posts, for our forty-fourth anniversary, Smarticus and I decided to celebrate our golden years by going to the north Georgia mountains for a few days to try our hands at gold and gem panning.

 I promised to tell you today what kind of gem I picked to have cut, polished and mounted for a necklace. Although tempted to go with the large emerald, I decided on a garnet. Surprised? So was Smarticus. Before I show you the finished product, and tell you why it turned out to be such a serendipitous choice, how about some fun facts about gems?

• Sapphires come in all colors of the rainbow, not just blue. How 'bout that? And get this: know what red sapphires are? Rubies! Who knew?
• Amethyst (violet) and citrine (yellow) are made of the same mineral... beryl. Excessive heat can change a stone's color from one to the other. (Hmmm, that'd make for an interesting necklace choice for a woman experiencing hot flashes, eh?)
• Aquamarine and emerald also come from the same mineral.
• Violet-blue iolite has the same polarizing capability as a pair of sunglasss. Allegedly, Vikings used to look through a piece of iolite to help them locate the sun on a cloudy day.
• Ancient Greeks named amber from their word for electron, because if rubbed, it gives off static electricity. (I'll give ya some static if you rub me the wrong way, too.)
• Fossilized tree sap must be at least 30 million years old to be considered amber. (Prior to that, I guess it's just stale sap.)
• If you sand malachite, it can give off a poisonous dust.
• When exposed to radiation, diamonds turn green. (Hmm, I wonder if there's an industrial application to take advantage of this quality?)
• Marlene Dietrich was renown for her massive jewelry collection, especially her emeralds, which she wore in most of her movies. However, when hosting a dinner party one evening, she couldn't find her mega-carat emerald ring anywhere. (The report I read said 37.41 carats, but I find that hard to believe.) Anyhow, the ring turned up, safe and sound. Inside a guest's slice of cake. (I'm guessing there was no finders-keepers rule invoked.)
• The word amethyst comes from the Greek methustos, which means not intoxicated. The ancient Greeks often made their drinking vessels from amethyst, in the belief that using them would prevent imbibers from getting drunk. (But offither, you muthn't arreth me... I'm methustos.)

                                             Okay, ready to see my garnet necklace?

Beautiful, isn't it? It has a deep reddish purple color, and no, I didn't pick it because the color reminded me of a nice glass of merlot. Okay, so maybe I did. So sue me. It's a pretty color. But in spite of my shallow choice based on a pretty color, choosing a garnet for the occasion actually turned out to be ... how shall I put this?... a brilliant choice.

Are you familiar with the Greek myth about Persephone? She was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. When Persephone accidentally fell into the Underworld, Hades wanted her to stay and be his wife, but Demeter was so distraught, she said she wouldn't let anything grow on Earth until Persephone was returned to her. Before allowing her to leave him, Hades gave Persephone a pomegranate, the sweet fruit of the dead, in the belief that if she tasted it, she would come back to him. She ate six of its seeds, and as a result, she thereafter spent six months of the year with her mother, and the other six with Hades.

So what does that have to do with a garnet, you ask? The garnet got its name from the Latin punica garanatum, which means pomegranate... partly because the coloring of some garnets is similar to the color of pomegranate seeds, and partly because the ancient Greeks considered the garnet to be a symbol for lasting love, and would give them to their lovers to ensure their return.

See? A perfect anniversary present, right? Talk about serendipity! Sometimes serendipity is just intention unmasked. [Elizabeth Berg, The Year of Pleasures]

                                           Oh, and that's not ALL...

Here's a picture of three of our grandchildren taken a couple years ago. The cutie sitting on the toy car? Believe it or not, her name is...  Persephone.

Yep, serendipity out the wazoo.



Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer's daughter. [Julius Comroe, Jr.]

Serendipity is putting a quarter in the gumball machine and having three pieces come rattling out instead of one — all red. [Peter H. Reynolds]

Serendipity is having the good sense to fall in love with your best friend.  [me]

Oh, that necklace isn't the only perfect memento we brought home with us. We also found these smooching salt and pepper shakers in an antique shop. What can I say? I love whimsy.

                                    Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

When love feels like magic, you call it destiny. When destiny has a sense of humor, you call it serendipity.