Most Sunday mornings, I go to a meditation center where I join a small circle of people in chanting and meditating. After the program, we have a community breakfast.. We’ll have savory cereal, bagels and cream cheese, fresh fruit, maybe a coffee cake, and chai; steaming hot black tea with brown sugar, milk, ginger and a blend of Indian spices. Two Sundays ago, I remember sliding along the bench towards a spot where I could enjoy my bagel when Holly spoke up.

“Oh Deb, those are really pretty earrings.”

Donna looked up at me and jumped in.

“Oh, that color of blue is beautiful. It goes great with your top.”

Jim thought he’d add his two cents.

“They’re very unusual. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pair like them. And you don’t wear jewelry all the time, do you?

Kathy, who was smiling quietly after what I surmise was a very deep meditation, decided to weigh in as well.

“Yes. They are a striking color of blue. They look like peacock feathers.”

The dozen or so heads around the table looked at me and smiled.

I was going to tell them “the story” of my earrings, or as much of it as I could think of. I’m not sure when I got the pair. Maybe someone gave them to me. I couldn’t remember. If I did buy them, I must have gotten them at a street fair, not a store. I don’t buy jewelry much, and I certainly don’t spend a lot of money on baubles. I really do love the color of blue, and yes, they look a little like peacock feathers, which I am very enamored with. I have a friend in Michigan who raises peacocks, and I took a collection of fanned out beauties home after making it out to Plymouth for her wedding last fall. I stuck them in a Styrofoam block and put them in a handled shopping bag and made sort of a dried arrangement with them. The earrings have the coloring of peacock feathers, but the design looks a little Southwestern, don’t you think, like a Native American decoration? I was in Sedona last spring. While I was there, I bought a small rose quartz pendant in the shape of a heart, but I am sure I did not get this pair of earrings then. I’m a winter, skin complexion-wise, and dark blue seems to look good on me. I have another pair of earrings made of glass that my mother got in Spain. They’re the same cobalt blue color. But I don’t know where they are…..

I took a deep breath. I think I unconsciously pulled my hair behind my ears; showing off my earrings while my brain was doing everything possible not to acknowledge positive regard.

I said, “Thank you.”

Sometimes, taking a compliment is no small thing.