Setting Down Engraving

First of all, this shirt was $1 at a garage sale fundraiser thingy. Second of all, I'm letting go of engraving lockets.

Listen, I'm moving faster than I've ever moved before. Not like, business-wise, or like running a marathon or anything, but with clarity of time and purpose. I'm removing the things that have been in my way, including the parts of myself that have blocked me.

Over the last 8-ish months I put in the emotional and spiritual work to learn how to exist in my life more fluidly. To float with intention down the river rather than be slammed ashore at the mercy of waves and rocks and then feeling helpless, hopeless as the storms keep coming. It feels a lot like healing, and it's involved personal work ranging from eating less Sriracha to naming some wounds I've carried for decades.

And now it feels like I'm steering, floating with the stream. I feel clear. I've released so many things that just weren't holding me the way they held me in the past. Old, hallowed-out beliefs. Habits, things, ideas, waste. I've released other people's fears that I let velcro to my body. I've released my own bullshit, too. It just became too heavy to carry, especially when the world is Knowing what it feels like to release something is what the Big Shifts of this Upended World have taught me, and continue to teach me. I can identify now what needs to be carried and what doesn't with much more ease now, and this makes a person feel light. I've never felt this lightness before. But let me tell you, it feels so good.

So anyway, I bought an engraver after working with a manufacturer for a couple months but we did not like what it did to our lockets. I think Mandy's exact words were "It just feels like it ruins a perfectly good locket."

So we let it go. Then I felt sloggy knowing it was back to the drawing board to find the right machine.

Then it occurred to me that I don't want to engrave lockets right now. I want to hold your stories and put your photographs inside lockets. That's what we're SO good at, and that's what we want more of.

So we set down engraving. Eventually we'll probably pick it back up, but not now. No timeline, no dates. It's just not something we offer. But, you can always take your locket to an engraver and have them do engrave-y things, many folks have done this, and those folks who engrave are really good at it.

The beautiful thing about releasing things is seeing what emerges as something you want to keep. You're one of those things. This work, your stories, your photographs and connections and relationships and love, these are what I carry with me. Not sure where this river is taking me, but I'm curious to find out.