Tourmaline
Sooooo... I love rocks. A while back my fella gave me a tourmaline, a marquis-cut green one, and I just had it set in a ring. When I received stones or jewelry, especially rings, as gifts in the past, I felt ambivalent and conflicted -- rings symbolize boundaries and bondage as well as unity and devotion. I went down to the jewelers' place (awesome couple, married for 54 years, he's been a jeweler since he was 22) to pick it up, and when I somewhat apprehensively put it on, I was surprised by a feeling of lightness, of joy. I HAVE been reading Anne LaMott's "Joe Jones," so maybe it was somehow related to that -- tourmaline has always been one of my favorite stones, though, and green tourmaline is associated with creativity, prosperity, abundance, and compassion, and is supposed to represent life energy and life force. In rock world, there's a color of tourmaline for every chakra, and green tourmaline is supposed to open the heart chakra. Well, despite my apprehension, I feel like my heart is open. You have to risk your heart to love.