Artefact

I had to tell a story about an artefact in an online session today for 35 people, so I chose the one about the contents of this box.

Here's what I shared . . . 

It was 18th of February 1990 and my girlfriend, Dd, and I were on the rocky shore beside the  Bunnahabhain Distillery on the Island of Islay in Scotland.  It was stormy, and rain was lashing down as we bent into the wind.  Suddenly, everything cleared and the sun burst through . . . it felt like the first morning.  

I dropped to one knee, looked up at a surprised Dd and asked her to marry me.  She said, ‘Yes', quickly, but then a moment later, I thought I saw the shadow of a new cloud cross her face.   'Is there something wrong?', I asked, now on both knees gripping her hands.   She hesitated. I thought it was all off . . . and so quickly. 'Usually . . . there's a ring . . .', she said with a little tremble on her lip.  

I clambered across the rocks that separated us from the water and picked up some strands of seaweed.  In silence, we solemnly tied one around each others ring finger. 'There,' I said, and kissed her on the lips.  

We have those engagement rings, still, in this small glass case.   What does all this say about me?  Well, that I can be spontaneous, that I'm not bad at improvising and that I carefully tend precious and fragile things that are important to me.  Any time a new cleaning lady starts with us, the only thing I ever point out is this glass case and plead that they handle it with extreme care.  

We must all look after the precious and fragile things in our lives, both tangible and intangible, a lesson I'm sure we have all learned during this last pandemic year.