My Special Box Of Gems

I moved home.

I dreaded the process from the moment the move was confirmed. Yet there was one detail I was looking forward to, the last one and least important of the move. Or maybe it is.

 

Argh! Moving! What a complicated affair! It doesn’t happen often, thank goodness. No move is ever simple and this one fulfilled its promises of unexpected problems, of delayed deliveries, of challenging flat boxed furniture to assemble-unassemble-and-reassemble-correctly, of broken boiler and legionella in the water tank. But, finally, I have reached the moment of the box.

At Christmas, a cousin offered me a lovely box, not too big, not too small, silver in colour, and classic with a modern feel. It might be a nice jewellery box in the bedroom or a sweet box on the living room glass table. No, it was not what I aimed it for. Holding it in my hands, I knew it carried a different purpose for another type of gems. I set it aside safely as the final touch in my new home, when only details remain to be taken care of – the ones that come to light with time when you live in a place. When the move was finished, I would find a place for my silver and glass box. Not somewhere too much in evidence, but somewhere where a curious pair of eyes might notice it and investigate what might be inside.

 

And inside would be a special kind gems, quotes.

Slowly, quotes from many origins and subjects will gather in my precious box. The first one has just gone in:

Faire face et être heureuse, envers et contre tout. (La Grande Catherine de Russie)

 

It threw me back to one day as a 16-year old when for the first time I jumped out of the sofa, grabbed a note pad, tore a blank page and wrote down the quote just read in a biography of The Great Catherine of Russia. ‘This speaks to me’, I remember thinking. Afterwards I put the paper in my wallet. It was soon followed by one, two, three, ten, fifty quotes and more. Over the years, I have accumulated hundreds of such wise words and have now created my own small online library. A selected few are still in my wallet, typed in small print on both sides of a piece of paper neatly folded between my cards. I take it out from time to time, when in need of a boost or a smile. Yet the first one of my collection had to be the first one in the box, in French as initially discovered. It translates something like:

Cope and be happy, against all odds.

 

Isn’t it strange how it blends positivism with realism, determination to live one’s life and enjoy it with the realisation that it will not be a jolly picnic party? Love Life, embrace it, savour it, fight for it, and focus on the good whatever happens.

 

But already a couple of quotes have joined the first one! I couldn’t resist a look in my wallet and those two sprung out totally at random.

I go by the gut. I might not appear to have any talent, but I’ve got plenty of gut instinct. (Haruki Murakami)

Everything is flux. You can never cross the same river twice. (Heraclitus)

 

Maybe they are not that random in fact. I did follow my gut when I wrote down Catherine The Great’s words and it helped. A fair share of difficult ‘odds’ have come my way and I have always found strength in her sentence. It is also because I believe that life flows that coping is always the best option until the tide current turns. Nothing is permanent, everything evolves.

Sadly, my special gems box will not contain them all. I will have to adopt a slow pace and force myself to carefully select which words belong to the box. Alternatively, I could just begin to collect these magical boxes as well as words of wisdoms…

Thank you for reading,

Yours, Virginie.