old and new

Tonight I wore an old gold bracelet to dinner. It's old and new all at the same time. Tonight was its first night out in a long while. It's spent the past two decades in a pink box, deep in a dresser drawer. It belonged to my great-grandmother, for whom I am named. It has a medallion that dangles from its golden links, and is held together with a golden clasp. Upon it are our mutual initials. It was probably too fancy to wear to a casual Saturday night dinner, but I didn't care. The sight of it on my wrist made me happy and every time I reached for my glass of water it made the most pleasant twinkling noise.

The bracelet joined the rest of my jewelry tonight in a silver box atop my dresser. Before I set it inside, I traced my finger along the letters on the medallion. I wondered about the beginnings of the bracelet. I wondered how many nights out on the town that bracelet had with great-grandmother Martha. How many times her hands clasped it tight around her wrist. If it was a gift from my great-grandfather on a special occasion. If she wore it on Saturdays.

As I slipped it on my wrist for the first time since I was a very little girl, its life began anew; the jingling noise like a heartbeat, revived after a long sleep inside a pink box. That bracelet is a circle of life around my wrist, the round medallion a symbol of the past and the present. The old and the new. A reminder that I am a link in a chain. Continually connected, able to trace my steps back to a German great-grandmother who shares my same name.