All Those Lives

For a brief moment, I was alone in my booth at Las Cruces Fine Art Show. A woman who was passing by stopped abruptly, staring at a sculptural bird-figurine bracelet displayed on a turn table.  She seemed mesmerized.

“So many lives!”  she exclaimed.

“I repurpose vintage costume jewelry,” I explained.

“I know! Each piece on the bracelet represents the person that owned it.”

I hadn’t thought of it that way before. There were over 100 items on that particular cuff.

She continued, “How did you make them all get along?!”

I was really casting about in my mind how to address her thought process. “Well, if it couldn’t get along with the others, it’s not on there.”

She said, “I can see that, but how did you do it?!”

I could have said something about the gift God has given me, or about the Holy Spirit, or simply that I didn’t know. I said a flash prayer and answered, “Well… I just ran it through the filter.”

She stood there, taking in my reply, never looking up from the little sculpture. After a pause, she nodded.

“Yes.  I guess that does explain it.”

She glanced at the items in my booth without entering, then hustled on past. Maybe, with all those lives, she thought it was already too crowded.