My necklace.

My necklace., originally uploaded by victoriashade.

Posting this from my new photo journal. I love the regular Flickr account, but I post a TON of pictures there. So with this new account, I am first going back through my archives and posting only my favorite pictures. Right now I am at the beginning of 2006, and I am aiming to post five pictures every other day. I'm honing my photoshop skills along the way. Once I get caught up to the present, I will then be able to challenge myself by taking new photos (which I'll be doing all the while long, but you get the idea).

I don't think I could ever put it more simply and effectively than to say that this is my necklace. I have an unusual attachment to this piece of jewelry, and in fact regard it less as jewelry and more as a talisman. It was given to me by my mother when I was 13. A couple weeks before, I had discovered a strange lump in my neck, and my doctor decided it should be removed since it was in an unlikely spot for swollen lymph nodes. It was outpatient surgery and my first horrible experience in my life with general anesthesia. We had been driving home when my mom felt compelled to stop at a store to buy this religious relic for me. Thinking back, it's a bit bizarre - we were (and are) not religious people, and I was napping in the back of the car thanks to the aftereffects and medication from the surgery. But she did it, and she purchased me a relic of St. Padre de Pio, who was not actually a saint at that time, having been canonized only just a few years ago in 2002 (on my birthday, as a matter of fact). St. Padre de Pio was famous for experiencing the stigmata on multiple occasions, and in this relic you can see a scrap of fabric that supposedly contains some of his blood from one of these experiences.

My mother, the long since lapsed Catholic, gave this to me. Whether or not you believe in it, someone, somewhere does. That gives it power. For me, the power comes from the fact that my scared mother wanted to give me something that I could hold on to in the face of uncertainty, whether it be medical or whatever else life would throw my way.

I love this necklace. I try not to think about the inevitability of life and how I might lose it someday. It is my most treasured possession, but the fact is we truly possess nothing, not even our bodies. Everything is lent to us and it's up to us to take as good care of everything as we possibly can, but sometimes even that is not enough.

Taken on a Canon PowerShot SD110.

Photo originally taken on December 2, 2005 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Photo posted on June 27, 2009.