Bidding of the Beads

I'm sitting here in Dad's bedroom as he naps, reading and taking notes on Beads of Faith by Henry & Marriott which just arrived today from Amazon.com—fourteen months after I ordered it.

BOFcover

I did not get to have dinner and beads "show & tell" with my good friend the goldsmith and her husband last night. But before next Wednesday, I want to finish and have at least mobile phone photos posted of at least two different kids of "rose bush" themed rosaries:

1. a 12x14mm opaque green silk "ivy" leaf beads with 10x12 mm opaque solid red rose lampwork beads rosary


2. an 8x10mm opaque green silk "birch" leaf (my preferred style) beads with 10x10mm opaque swirled pink or red rose lampwork beads rosary

as well as

 3.  a commissioned set of 8&6mm Connemara marble prayer beads for the old Irish goddess, Brighid.

I would also like to have at least demos of:

• the Our Lady Star of the Sea (Stella Maris) rosary with approx. 8x10mm white dove nassa shells, Stella Maris center medal, and a silver mariner's crucifix;

• an approx. 8-10mm turquoise nugget rosary with 10mm carved red howlite roses;

• an 8mm round turquoise bead rosary with 7x10mm silver roses; and
  

• bracelet variations on any of the above

for your appraisal.  The hang up may be either the lack of findings (mostly chain, specific center Y-connector medals, and bracelet findings) which are holding up several projects, or technical solutions which remain with the nassa shells & making the wire crosses (with or without beads and/or medals) made on a wire jig or completely by hand.

It is the kind of deities in which we choose to believe that ... makes all the difference.

In the long light of human history, it is not belief in God that sets us apart. It is the kind of God in which we choose to believe that in the end makes all the difference. We have, of course, in our attempt to understand God as personal, configured the Godhead to be a person writ large and seen in that conception both the best and the worst of ourselves. Until I discover the God in which I believe, I will never understand another thing about my own life. If my God is harsh judge, I will live in unquenchable guilt. If my God is Holy Nothingness, I will live a life of cosmic loneliness. If my God is taunt and bully, I will live my life impaled on the pin of a grinning giant. If my God is life and hope, I will live my life in fullness overflowing forever.
 
I have known all of those Gods in my own life. They have all failed me. I have feared God and been judgmental of others. I have used God to get me through life and, as a result, failed to take steps to change life myself. I have been blind to the God within me and so, thinking of God as far away, have failed to make God present to others. I have come to the conclusion, after a lifetime of looking for God, that such divinity is a graven image of ourselves, that such a deity is not a god big enough to believe in. Indeed, it is the God in whom we choose to believe that determines the rest of life for us. In our conception of the nature of God lies the kernel of the spiritual life. Made in the image of God, we grow in the image of God we make for ourselves.
 
The God-question leaves us standing at the summit of the mountain of faith facing the mountain of life. To say, “I believe in God” determines the rest of our entire lives. “I believe”—“in God” may be the two most developmental statements in the human lexicon. To say “I believe in God” means that I commit myself to make God a presence in the center of my heart, in the humdrum of my days, in the dregs of my struggles. Discovering the way God works in each of those is the spiritual journey of a lifetime. It is the ultimate spiritual task.
 
— from In Search of Belief by Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB