A Pearl Blue Starry Noon

Weekends often get busier with family dinners, games, and movie nights and us making a scatter around our house especially our living room, but amidst all the fun and chaos, my usual concern for tidiness fades away. Then Monday arrives, bringing the familiar monday blues followed by the inevitable task of cleaning and organizing to restore the house to its homely shape.

 As I clean each corner from leftover crumbs and dust off, my heart fills up with the memories of laughter and the stories. Of those fun family times our children and their friends, my acquaintances, and my husbands colleagues the gifts they got the flowers I decorated. Each crumb and speck of dust holds so many stories leftover in them. 

Once everything is back in its place like the dishes washed, towels dried, barbecue gear put away, and winter coats shelved the flavours and memories of the weekend still linger on.

 That afternoon as I cleaned I found a pearl fallen down by our sofa on the carpet. It was my daughters friends I think, so I messaged her about it and kept it safely in an ornament box. As I opened this box I got reminded of the pearl shopping I had long back done for my relatives.

 I had to shop for pearls that my aunts had asked me to buy for them. I did not have much idea about jewellery neither was a shopping person so during that time I had to research about pearl jewels before buying genuine ones. What started as a simple shopping task, turned into a phase where I was completely in awe of how pearls are formed.

 It was fascinating to learn at the time how a grain of sand or other irritant which gets trapped inside an oyster. Each instance such irritant or threat trapped, over time the oyster secretes layers of nacre around it gradually forming a pearl. That’s how pearls are made up, of this nacre and it is one of the strongest and lightest biomaterials we know of.

 It’s an absolutely brilliant phenomenon how these threats are transformed into opalescent spheres of nacre. Transforming constant intruders into timeless treasures. We can be inspired from mother nature and learn some ways to allow our threats and intrusions to be perceived and treated effectively with time I thought, with such perseverance transforming threats to our advantages like these beauties. 

It must be so magical to open an oyster shell I imagined. Opening it might reveal an exquisite jewel nestled within… The beautiful pearl inside. Equally bewildering is how a beautiful pearl has such a craggy case shell! Yet despite their iridescent colours and smooth shape these pearls are made up of the exact same material as that of the shell that surrounds them. 

We are fortunate enough to just discover and learn about them from the nature. I quickly gathered myself and looked at the clock. I was forgetting some chores for that weekday. After the weekend hangovers within a day or so ofcourse mind takes over, and I too would go, step out from my stories out and about, ticking off my to-do list and other weekday life matters.

 Finishing them are important too and a way to keep my weekday occupied. It is also a pleasure to then come back to your clean and warm smelling home. Afternoons I spend time cooking and eating spicy lunch and some flavoured tea. Most days my dear husband gives me company other days when I am by myself I pick up one of my hobbies to kill time until evening when he is back home.

 On colder days I usually sit to crochet or sometimes practice my knitting making small projects. It's amazing how these slender needles and tiny hooks twist with the wool into designs and I like the way we can convert them into mufflers doilies etc without much tools or machinery. Even my yarns are not different from me they loop out my yearnings of times again in my mind as I crochet or sit knitting and I can’t help grinning or sometimes wetting my eyes and silently wishing for my dears a smile and grace.

 Every now and then I take a moment to enjoy the view outside our large windows in the kitchen and hall, especially red and yellow colours of the transition from autumn to winter. Gaze and I laze and sometimes even dull moments become worthwhile through organic and even homely indulgences. Sometimes we need inspiration and many other times it can be our mindful recollections. This kind of transformation requires perseverance, but a small conscious effort on our part can help wade of Monday blues. 

As I reflected on the beauty of nature's creations and with a doily pattern in hand as I crocheted I remembered a story my teacher shared with us about miners in Australia. Back in the 1980s five miners in Australia climbed Lunatic hill to dig there. At a depth of 2 to 5 mtrs into their work, the earth rewarded them with an opal. The miners had dug almost 20 metres when their other competitors were just at two to five metres. Their perseverance gave them a big opal almost fist sized. It shone radiantly.

 Later I browsed to read more about it. If we compared between diamonds, pearls and opals, opals can be very different from each other it said. The constructive interference of light and dust on the material it produces makes us see this dazzling and vibrant display of spectrum of colours. It is because of the confluence of chemistry, geology and optics that they sparkle and look radiant. 

How natures interference becomes art, may be one day we can also be constructive while interfering..? Amazing how our minds can suddenly recall certain stories, sparking memories seemingly out of nowhere I’ve often thought about and wished how we too can create something beautiful from the simplest things, just as nature does.

 I completed the last round of crochet project a star-shaped doily. I had some blue crafty pearls I used them to border this doily. I imagined how well it would sit with the blue table runner... Waiting for my husband to take a notice of this at dinner time getting a hint of how my noon was spent today : ) The star shaped doily, pearl incidents and more such muse in my noons filled up my day! 

A Pearl Blue Starry Noon

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A wonderful story shared Aarti. A beautiful pearl is something to behold. I liked your thoughts and how you searched for your aunts. I liked how you create a blue crafty pearls doily. Did the husband notice? Thank you for sharing the entertaining and amazing story.
Coyote

[Aarti Sriram]

Appreciate very much your kind review and glad you enjoyed the pearl tit bits. Yeah he liked the doily too : ) Thankyou @Coyote

[Martiya Daman]

You did a good job again Aarti! This was such a beautifully woven narrative! I loved how you transitioned seamlessly from the chaos of weekends to the calm and reflective moments of weekdays. The way you connected everyday chores, nature’s wonders, and personal musings with pearls and opals was so inspiring and poetic. Your writing reminds us of the beauty in small things and the art of finding joy and meaning in our daily lives. The star-shaped doily bordered with blue pearls sounds like such a charming creation—I’m sure it will be noticed and admired at dinner!

[Aarti Sriram]

Thankyou my dear for your very kind words. You rightly said its those small things only the star in making our everyday life a jewel.

[Marie]

What a WONDERFUL storyteller you are, dear Aarti! I adore your beautifully narrated stories SO much and enjoy reading them always.
I love your discovery of how pearls are produced by the oyster. They are so expensive too!
I clean like you everyday, but the weekend gets a very special cleaning from top to bottom of the house. It is so satisfying when one finishes and sits to enjoy a coffee.
I so enjoyed reading about the Opal discovery in Australia. My Grandson returned from Melbourne, Australia last Christmas and brought me a chunk of rock with opal glints in it. There's white, royal blue, a little green, etc and I love to just sit and hold it sometimes. Opals are very beautiful.
I love your story about knitting and doing crochet. I always knit for the children when they were young, from babies to twelve or so. I miss not knitting and might just buy some thread on Friday and take it up again. I always wanted to learn crochet, but we didn't do it at school as part of our curriculum, but my daughter Denyse does beautiful work and I might ask her to teach me.
Your star shaped doily sounds divine, dear Aarti. Your lovely husband could not help but notice it and complement you on your very beautiful work.
THANK YOU! so v-e-r-y much for sharing this lovely, story which I so enjoyed! I just LOVE your stories, they are little treasured gems, dear Aarti...

[Aarti Sriram]

So cute of your grandson to get a gift for you and I can imagine the opal sitting in your shiny home Marie and how you feel holding it close sending all your love and wishes to him. Your home must vibe happiness as you sit satisfied in your clean shiny space sipping coffee. Your children are so lucky to keep warm with your loving hand knits. And good luck dear learning crochet, I am sure your Denyse will be thrilled to know you speak highly of her and trying to learn a new craft now.
Marie you read a long piece ..thankyou for your time and you sure do instill so much confidence in me through your love and listening to every piece of detail, for each of us. Respects. You would make such a wonderful teacher not just to a school but to us all, pupils of life. I feel very happy that some snapshots writes of my day made for a good read for you. I was hesitant to send a read request but you read my mind! Thanks Marie...

[Marie]

Most welcome always, dear Aarti. It is ever a great joy and privilege to read your wonderful literary gems. Thank you for your so kind words, Aarti, I will ever treasure them, dear friend. A warm Good morning hug as I wish you a very happy, blessed and beautiful day to enjoy! Keep cosy, safe and warm 🤍

[Aarti Sriram]

Thank U ,good morning and hugs to you too Marie!

[Marie]

Thank you, dear Aarti...