Making Silk Purses From Sow's Ears

Earlier this week, one of my anam cara (soul friends) and I were enjoying a telephone catch-up, as we often do, and Carmina said, "Well, Jamie, if anyone can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, it's you." We both had a good laugh over that one.

I appreciated the good-humored reminder, though, that it's a practice -- a form of 'engaged spirituality', perhaps -- to look for the silk purse in the sow's ear, or to be open to the alchemy that transforms something that is seemingly tough or undesirable into something fine, meaningful, and rewarding.

As the proverbial wisdom goes, we don't always (or even often) have a choice in some of the circumstances and events that come into our experience, but we can choose what we ultimately make of them.

Wishing you a magical day of finding silk purses.

With Joy,
Jamie

p.s. - For those of you who enjoyed knowing the derivation of such sayings -- like 'making a silk purse from a sow's ear' -- the phrase 'sow's ear' derived from the French word, sousier, which meant 'purse', and for peasants, a sousier would be made of rough, humble cloth, made with what was available to serve a practical purpose. Combining (or finding) beauty in something 'practical' is a worthy art!