I am always on the lookout on Ebay and vintage jewelry sites for old lockets which happen to bear my initials, even if it requires imagination and willful misreading to make them come out right. I have several MHs, a ring with MTH, and quite a few lockets with other initials that with artistic license I can imagine have, in varying order, MTAH. In the course of this quest, I often come across jewelry with touching inscriptions, which I also like to collect, if the price is right. Since most people prefer uninscribed vintage jewelry, and since I don't care if it is 14K or not, the price often is right.
Just now, though, I came across a truly old tiny glass locket, from the 1700s. Inside, the dust of an old flower. And at the top, in partially broken lettering, the inscription: Sans Amour, Rien. Without Love, Nothing. Tears sprang to my eyes as I read it, and are clouding them still as I write this. I think of that couple more than 200 years ago, and the love that united them which this locket symbolized. I think of my life and my longing. Don't we all want love? And without it, what avails us? Nothing.
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