Waste not, want not

I've had for a long time my late mom's locket. I loved the setting, but I couldn't bring myself to wear it because the middle stone, a jade, had turned brown and muddy.










You know what they say about jades - they respond to the wearer. If your jade suits you (maybe it's the other way around), the colour would become richer and more beautiful. Otherwise, the stone would fade or even break. In this case, I had a feeling that the colour turned dark due to my mom's long and chronic illness.

I've always wondered about our relationship with crystals and stones. It's all the rage these days to wear crystal bracelets. But what actually is the factor at hand? How do these things work?

Whatever the cause, it turned me off wearing the locket because I could not bear to wear a stone which had been 'tainted' with pain and suffering. What if it 'poisoned' me as well? Call me demented, but I do believe that the subconscious affects us in many obscure ways. A nagging mind distracts us from our quest for happiness, perhaps.

In any case, I decided to change the stone. It should be pretty easy, right? However, it proved to be quite a challenge. Not being a fan of luxury items, I didn't know where to turn. Visits to big, posh jewellery stores earned me disdainful looks and quotes that run into the thousands. Not being a necessity, I soon put the locket away in a jewellery box, and let the matter languish at the back of my mind. Once in a while, I would approach someone at a jewellers and ask. I never went back to any of the shops with the item, but I did realise that small shops were more open to repair jobs other than selling expensive new jewellery.

At last, opportunity presented itself. Someone opened a small jewellery shop near my office. I first went there to ask if they could fix the hook on my gold chain which had broken off. Sad it might seem, I had been wearing that treasured chain, a gift from my parents since my teens, and I do feel quite incomplete without it. I was pleased that it was so cheap - just RM10 for the missing part and RM5 for workmanship. RM5!! I couldn't imagine any other shop taking less than RM30.

Browsing, I asked again about the locket. The lady said that it definitely could be done. The next day, I took the locket with me and showed it to her. We chose a stone and she promised to have it done the same day. I had budgeted a few hundred for a ruby, but there wasn't one in the right size. So I settled for a lesser stone. Total cost: RM15 again.

Maybe someday I'll upgrade it to a ruby, but for the time being, I have a red stone surrounded with diamonds. To me, red is the colour of happiness. And I could finally wear the locket that I admired but for the flaw which I could not forgive.

I'm not sure what to do about the jade now. I don't believe one should throw away gems, but something about its history makes me shudder. Could I maybe bury it outside the house? Or dispose of it in a swift running river as one does unwanted spirits? Maybe I could gift it to my stepmother as a symbol of my ill will. Heh. I'll figure something out, eventually. Any suggestions?