A little bit from Sandra Lewis in case you missed it in our May newsletter. Sandra is designing our new jewelry for Journeys which should be here very soon…

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Hello Journeyers, welcome. This new addition to the Journeys newsletter will aim to explore and celebrate beauty through a wide lens of ritual adornment. The perspective I bring is shaped by a love affair with treasure hunting and making things that delight the senses.

A circuitous path from wanting to be a therapist to a career designing jewelry led me to Journeys. As a vendor, I learned about their mission and the women at the helm who imagined and built a place for the transformational work of helping people be at home in their personal center.

Journeys’ new home is a world of opportunity where self-acceptance and healing are a chosen path. Available to everyone, wherever we are and however flawed and wounded. It is a space that invites us to put love wholly at the center. To look for the beauty, say yes to joy, and if we find some magic along the way, all the better!

If you are curious about or have a fascination with rocks, shells, beads, glass, precious gems and metals, and all manner of oddities and artifacts, you are in good company. I imagine these intriguing tidbits may catch your attention as they have since my youngest days on beaches collecting found treasures. Time spent in this realm has fostered an appreciation for the way objects and symbols can facilitate meaningful self-expression. Throughout millennia, humans have collected, worn, and relished these things as a way to announce their place in the world.

This is fertile and expansive territory. As deeply personal as it is universal. Whoever we are, there are likely tangible things interwoven into our story. They might be found, bought, gifted or inherited, saturated with or devoid of color and texture, in broken pieces or part of something grand. But somehow, they speak to us. Or, for us. They become our talisman, the thing that keeps us on task or reminds us who we want to be. Or, dare I say, a reflection of our own beauty.

I’m excited to be here. And grateful to partner in this way with Torrii and Lisa. To put words to lessons learned, moments that brought perspective, inspired awe or hope; a million tiny things and a few big ones that impact all things. And seem to open a door to someplace beyond self-limitation. For me, this winding road returns to the unpredictability of how our lives unfold.

I didn’t become a therapist. Still, the compelling part of this work is the life-changing experience of taking in and being guided by beauty. Discovering what the poet John O’Donohue seemed to know in his bones, that the presence of beauty is a balm for the spirit. A healing, insistent presence softening the edges and nudging the heart open at every turn. Like the bossy whisper of a true-blue friend who is all in for the ride and rooting for the best version of you.

Here’s to following the path that calls and finding treasure along the way!