Five Beads on a String Around My Wrist

Published on 8 June 2024 at 22:28

Moments are what matter, I’ve always felt, more than the ages we live through, the stand-out, unforgettable moments, happy and sad, that help us discover ourselves, and find our purpose, spark our fire within, each moment like a precious bead on a string around my wrist, unique treasures to help me remember my past, whispered or unspoken universal prayers for my future.

Like the moment, long ago, the ticket collector on the school bus showed me a magic trick with a simple matchbox, the first magic I ever saw as a kid, and all I’ve ever wanted since is to be a magician, and I barely need the bright red, practically scarlet, bead to remind me.

The blue bead takes me to the ocean the dog was pulled from, drowned under the little wooden pier at Pigeon Point, Tobago, lifeless, without a breath left, good and dead, yet somehow the owner brought it back, I saw it spring back to life, watched it shake the water from its fur and go looking for just the right place to lie in the sun, leaving me never giving up on anything or anyone, ever.

I cannot escape the moment I walked up the stairs of a London nightclub at 4am, and caught the eye of a girl who was my soulmate, and we both gasped, and I kept on walking, and I’ll never know why, but the yellow ochre bead reminds me never to do such a thing again.

The light brown bead is for the moment one bleak Christmas morning, alone, standing outside, smoking and drinking coffee, when a voice in my head, a kind and serious voice that seemed to know me well, said, ‘ Break the bloody cup, Alisdair’ and without a thought I dashed the porcelain antique cup I was holding, which I cherished way too much, to the ground, and laughed to see the pieces shatter and scatter, and there’s barely any thing I cherish now, love is for people, not stuff, and coffee tastes fine in a paper cup.

The last bead is as gold as you like, for the woman I barely knew who unexpectedly held my hand, and healed me, and I remembered a trick with golden light, and how to heal myself.

Dear Reader, I would offer you a moment from my life, you can have any bead you chose from my bracelet, but I’m guessing you have your own moments that matter, your own treasures, look to them this week.

With love X


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Comments

luisa wright
4 months ago

i too have cherished the wrong things, put effort in the wrong direction. Now i wake up thankful that the love i receive is genuine xxx lu xxx

Alisdair Chisholm
4 months ago

Hi Luisa, really good to hear your comment, glad to know you’re still out there. Thank you for sharing the post. Be good to catch up? Xxx