Garnet in the Rough

Shortly before I got married, a dear friend told me that being married was like constantly looking at yourself in the mirror—you quickly become aware of all your imperfections as you constantly have someone else to live life with. If that statement was true, having a baby is like having that mirror and a parrot. A really smart parrot that does all that good mimicking stuff.

And at some point in time during my pregnancy with Newell, it occurred to me that I was going to have a parrot. After all, aren’t we all parrots for a while? Think about this--at the beginning of your life, everything you have ever known or learned you’ve learned from someone else. You learn to copy, mimic and mock the sounds and actions of those around you. And as I thought about this little baby-to-be I realized that I wasn’t sure I was ready for a parrot…

When you think about having a little someone with you almost 24-7 watching everything you do and say knowing that these are the things they will someday do and say, you suddenly remember all the flaws in that mirror! As I thought on these things the old “diamond in the rough” expression came to mind. And as I became growingly aware of my own flaws and this perfect little moldable child Caleb and I were bringing into the world, no expression seemed more appropriate. Here I was, flawed and imperfect, yet, getting ready to be given one of the greatest gifts possible, pure and perfect (or stinking close to it :) ).

It was somewhere in the midst of all these random thoughts of motherhood that made me create the piece “A Garnet in the Rough.” The low grade turquoise disc holds a 5mm cut and polished Garnet (Newell’s birth stone) while his name “Newell Simeon Marsh” is hand hammered into the silver bezel holding everything together. In short, it symbolizes my time preparing for the unknown blessing and the impact he’s had on my life thus far. And perhaps the most promising hope I found in my thoughts and ramblings was Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train a child in the way he should go and he will not turn from it.”