It’s so interesting how quickly the exciting, extraordinary, and amazing becomes the “usual”.

I say this looking down at my oh-so-dirty diamond ring. I love my ring. It is beautiful, sparkly (when clean), and more than I ever could have wanted. For the first 2 weeks of our engagement, I looked at it constantly, I cleaned it every 3 days. It felt like a lovely little alien had landed on my finger (I’ve never been a ring-wearer before). I used my left hand to do EVERYTHING. “Here! Let me get that for you! OH! You didn’t know I was engaged? Let me tell you about how he proposed…”

And now, it’s dirty. And that makes me sad.

I had a friend in grad school (I use the word “friend” loosely as she was emotionally abusive, needy, and completely self-absorbed) who had been married for over 4 years and was still engrossed in her ring. I had more conversations with her about that ring than I can count (which is especially unnerving as it was one of those gaudy, elaborately ornate rings like Galadriel’s, but was also always grimy for that very reason…one can only keep dirt out of so many crevices). I wish I could go back to the past and take back that time, put it to some constructive use…like cleaning my ring.

The nice thing about waiting so long in between ring-cleanings is that it’s like I get a whole new ring each time I clean it. I forget how sparkly it can be, and when it’s all pretty and shiny again, I get to say, “ooooooh,” like I’m seeing it for the first time.