I’ve become a fan of the semi-precious gemstone labradorite. It ranges in color from gray-green or light blue to a deep bluish purple in color, and it has an iridescent quality that makes the color change as you move it in the light. When I found out that a friend was starting her own jewelry company and I saw that she had a pair of labradorite earrings unlike any I already had, I had to buy a pair.
They were wired drop earrings, not too long, and I loved them. They didn’t come with a back, though, but I figured the wired part was narrow enough to prevent them from falling out. It turns out I was wrong.
I had worn them for about two or three weeks when one of the earrings went missing. I looked everywhere, but it wasn’t until I was cleaning my house later that week that I discovered it, caught in the carpet on the steps going down to our basement. Relieved, I cleaned it up and started wearing them again. “That was probably a fluke,” I thought, dismissing the idea that I should wear backs on the earrings.
After a few more weeks, one of the earrings went missing again, this time for about three months. I kicked myself for not wearing backs on the earrings, but I held on to the remaining earring with the hope that the lost mate would show up again. If it did, I vowed, this time I’d wear backs on the earrings.
I hung the solitary earring on a decorative container in my bathroom that holds makeup and other items. Every day, I would look at that earring, feel a little bad that I didn’t put a back on it after I lost it the first time, and then mostly become hopeful that it might turn up again. After all, it had been lost once before and found its way back to me.
A few weeks ago after the snow had melted, my daughter was visiting. She had just taken the dogs out when she came in holding my missing earring. “Is this yours?” she said, handing it to me. “I found it in the crack of the sidewalk outside.”
I learned my lesson with these labradorite earrings – always wear backs on earrings even if it seems unlikely they could slip out. But I learned an even more important lesson – don’t give up. Hold on to hope, knowing that sometimes, things do work out. I have a beautiful pair of labradorite earrings to prove it.