Are you living your truest life?

These past few months have really put a magnifying glass on everyone’s lives. It’s as though the “busyness” we allowed to clutter our lives before has been removed and so now we’re all incredibly focused on what does and does not make us happy, what we want our lives to look like, and what works for us. Instead of just keeping up with the Joneses, maybe now you’re starting to ask yourselves “do I even want to be the Joneses? Do I even want their life?”

And when you see that they aren’t living your “ultimate goal life” it’s forcing everyone to ask well then what DO I want?

And it can be incredibly scary to actually just sit with yourself and and look inward to see what makes you tick/ what makes you happy; and even scarier to see it an then go for it! (Especially if it’s not the “norm.”)

But I’m here to tell you- you have to keep doing it. The ONLY way that you can live a full and beautiful life that is true to you is, in fact, by being true to you. Not true to what your parents want, what your friends want, what that well meaning stranger who gave you their unsolicited opinion in the grocery store wants- but WHAT YOU WANT.

What makes your heart sing? What makes you feel cared for, content, and joyful? What feels “right?”

That’s what you need to be doing right now.

*steps off soapbox*

📷 of Garnet- an 11”x14” stunner currently available here

GEMSTONES is LIVE!

GEMSTONES- my twenty-two piece collection inspired by the colors, meanings, and folklore associated with both gemstones and flowers- is officially LIVE!

Head over now to see the whole series (and claim yours!)

The story of Amethyst

GEMSTONES launches next Friday (unless you’re an email subscriber in which case you get early access the night before) so I thought I’d share a little bit of the mythology, folklore, etc. that inspired this collection over the next few days.

So.

Back to Amethysts.

If we looked to nature and science, the Incredible Hulk should have actually turned purple instead of green when he was exposed to gamma radiation. At least, that's what happens to amethysts. It's true! Those beautiful deep purples? All thanks to captured gamma rays.

The ancient Greeks believed that an amethyst had been given from the Titan Rhea to the god Dionysus in order to protect him from drunkenness.** Trying to "harness" that same power, this led to some pretty entertaining occurrences- like people making wine glasses out of amethyst so they could drink without consequence. (Spoiler alert- They still got drunk, but at least their cups were pretty.)

Today, it's power is a little more vague and sticks to the overall themes of promoting clarity, level headedness, and intuition. (Which let's be honest, kind of goes hand in hand with sobriety.)

**There is another more Hollywood-esque myth that says Dionysus was trying to capture a woman named Amethyste, but she wanted nothing to do with him. True to pretty much all mythology, the god decided her feelings didn't matter and chased her into the woods. She pleaded with Artemis to save her and the goddess turned her into a pure quartz crystal. Dionysus realized he was a jerk and cried tears of wine onto the crystal forever giving it its deep purple color. This story isn't found in classical texts though, so I thought I'd share the other one first.