A Proposal (A Glimpse).

Originally posted on April 1, 2013 

I took my wedding rings off this morning, to slip into something almost old-fashioned.

The original engagement ring Tim proposed with, it’s this gorgeous thing, this big gorgeous thing that doesn’t fit with a wedding band, thus relegating it to the shelf most days.

Today I wanted to stare at something big and bold, to see origins shining back at me.

:::

The night he proposed, he took me for a walk.  The light was fading so quickly you could almost see it, like the air was on its own dimmer.

We walked, me and him and Redmond, up into the forest-y hills far behind the house we were living in then.  ”Babe, it’s really getting dark.”

“Just trust me, come on.”

My stomach tightened with the anticipation of maybe-this-is-it, but I forced myself back down; I’d been waiting to marry this man for nearly five years and didn’t want to ruin our night with disappointment.

We arrived at a cave-like mass of ancient stone.  I could barely see his face.  Red tramped around.  He grabbed my hand and I lost my breath.

He said words that I don’t want to type because they’re ours.  To which I responded, “Are you serious?”  And then this ring, this big gorgeous ring, he put it on my hand.  By then it was so dark that I couldn’t see anything at all, could only feel its weight.

When we got back to the car, I shined a light on my hand and saw green sea glass, Corsican sea glass, a Herkimer diamond – raw and elemental – set down in its center.  He’d designed it with a jeweler from Vermont, had driven to Herkimer, NY to himself mine for the stone.

The piece of glass that’s in my ring came originally from a larger piece.  The remaining section was there in the car, wrapped around the edges in silver – the jeweler, apparently liking this guy, had made it into a pendant as a surprise.  He turned it over for me to see, and there on the back, raised and small was a solitary “E”.

I marvel, still.

At all of it.

*E