תליון השלווה בזהב

 It started with a funeral.
About a year ago, I made a journey to the desert. It's one of my favourite places, with its tranquil scenery and peace of mind. I always feel at home. This time, it was just a short trip to pay respects to Ruby, the mother of my long-time "Ka Gold" partner and friend, Yaron Shaool.

Though I have never met Ruby, I remember Yaron's love for his mother. The first time I made a piece of jewelry with rubies, he mentioned that that was his mother's name and how much he loved her.

During the funeral and the eulogies, one particularly caught my attention. The story about the Serenity Prayer was hung on the wall in her working space:
"God grant me the Serenity.
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the Wisdom to know the difference."

I've always thought that this was a brilliant text. The original version was composed by Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the early 1930s:
"The victorious man in the day of crisis is the man who has the serenity to accept what he cannot help and the courage to change what must be altered."

When you look at the text, it sounds exactly like the ancient Stoic Philosophy, which is the ancient Greco-Roman philosophy. Stoicism, known as the "Buddhism of the West," revolves around working on self-control and confronting negative emotions, fear, self-doubt, and mental fog, among others. That is why I've used the sacred lotus symbol as the main motif for this pendant. The prayer itself is engraved in Hebrew, and of course, the lotus petals are adorned with tiny beads of ruby.

Even though Stoicism evolved during and among Paganism and idol worshippers, their fundamental belief was that an unseen force governs everything. That unseen power was called the Logos. It is an undefinable presence with infinite power, wisdom, and love. Everything in existence is derived from it, and when we die, we return and unite with it. It governs everything, and if you follow the path that was chosen for you, you will promote your own existence and humanity's mission for the better, even if you don't understand or perceive the "bigger picture."

Stoicism is quite popular today, perhaps due to modern challenges and modernity and technology, which, on the one hand, made our life comfortable but, on the other hand, promoted mental and spiritual "laziness." It is up to us to follow the path and bring love and light to this sometimes harsh existence and the fact that life is hard many times.

Sometimes, we look at our actions and think about certain events as "significant"; many times, it's our minor actions, things that we take for granted, that are the most influential.

Think about how many years ago Ruby hung out in her workplace at the Serenity Prayer.

It was mentioned during her funeral. This event led to the creation of the Serenity Prayer pendant. In return, someone in the near or far future will own this pendant, and it will help this person overcome hardships and challenges and thus transform someone's life for the better.

This is actually how our own actions/decisions and heritage live on and on…