Ring it Again
Charles and I came into this marriage with experience; both being previously married. We entered the space of matrimony with our eyes wide open, knowing that it was not going to be a fairytale. The success of our story depended on keeping the flame going and choosing each other every single day.
There was no surprise proposal, after two years of courting we decided to make it official. Charles took me to his favorite jewelry store and allowed me to pick out my ring, which was a pretty brave thing to do. Of course since I felt like a Princess, that would be my diamond cut and since I was given the five star treatment, platinum was the only way to go. At the time I was working as a bedside nurse, so Charles even bought me white gold band for work. Yep he’s definitely a keeper!
Charles selected his wedding band to compliment my rings, we got married lived happily, choosing each other day after day; even on the most challenging of days. Around our tenth wedding anniversary we began the discussion of changing our rings. We wanted our rings to reflect us, and honestly although we loved our rings they were not a reflection of US.
When I met Charles for the first time he was wearing a grey sweatshirt with a yin yang patch over his heart. This caught my attention and made me curious about him because I had a yin yang custom tag on the front of my car. Our wedding cake was decorated with a yin yang symbol and you guessed it we had a chocolate cake and vanilla cake. Over the course of our now nearly fifteen years of marriage we have always referred to each other in terms of yin and yang.
So quite naturally once we decided to switch our wedding rings out, we selected a yin yang design over a diamond and chose silver over platinum or gold. We switched rings on our fourteenth anniversary which just so happen to fall smack in the middle of a world pandemic. There was something so liberating about changing our rings, it was like cutting away societal expectations. When you think about it most people UPGRADE to a larger and fancier ring. Instead Charles and I did a SOUL GRADE exchange and selected rings that represented the very essence of who we are collectively and individually. Our rings speak to the One-Love that is Charles and Diane, see in the yang there is yin likewise in the yin there is yang. Our rings represent balance and for us that balance represents being UNSTOPPABLE!
One Love ~ Diane/Charles