Paper Ghost: Musings of a Restless Girl

BloodMilk is releasing a special series of rose quartz jewels today. Rose Quartz has always resonated with me, though when prompted to explore my connections to it, I could not pinpoint anything beyond associations with my birthday and my grandma.  I know that RQ is symbolic of love, but I wasn't sure what else. BM's post and collection has led me to begin exploring my associations a little deeper. My immediate connections are as I said, my grandma. She loved pink and she loved roses, she loved jewelry and stones. She gave me a bracelet with large rose quartz stones on it one year, a bracelet that I have brought out numerous times to wear with me on days where I felt I needed her strength. 2018 marked the passage of ten years since her death, the bracelet broke during this year as well. I was devastated. I have always read that rose quartz is a birthstone for October as well, my second association with the stone. My closest friends have October birthdays as well, as does ...

I've been having some strange dreams and most of the time my strange dreams are just strange nightmares about nothing that seems to mean much of anything, but these felt different. Last night, I dreamt that I was at my grandma's house.  I have dreams that take place at her house fairly often but in most of them, I can't find her.  There's a feeling that I just missed her and she never comes into view. But this one was different as she was actually there and I could see and hear her voice.  We were getting ready to go somewhere with my grandpa and there was a strange dog outside, it was starving, its hair was falling out, and its skin was red.  Somehow, it had gotten into the backyard and was waiting at the door to be let into her "Florida room" as we called it. But of course, all the pekes were out there and that wasn't going to happen. A very strange person showed up all of a sudden and seemed very ominous and threatening.  I can't remember if he...

When I was little, I would explore all the nooks and crannies in the spare bedroom at my grandma's house in Winchester.  The chest of drawers was full of treasures--rose-scented lotions, candles, shiny makeup compacts, old business cards, sachets of potpourri, all fascinating to a little girl.  There was one trinket in particular that caught my eye and I begged my grandma to let me keep it: an old skeleton key. My grandma's house wasn't old enough to have locks that would need such a key and I assume it likely came from the house my dad grew up in, making the key that much more mysterious.  I wore the key around my neck on a chain for years, throughout high school.  When my grandma passed away in the summer of 2008, the necklace became a talisman.  I used it to carry her love and light with me and I rarely took it off.  One night, I came home from spending time with friends and the chain broke, the necklace finding its way to the floor.  I h...