{"id":10745,"date":"2021-10-12T02:04:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T02:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10745"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:38","slug":"bracelet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10745","title":{"rendered":"BRACELET"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My wrist feels naked tonight. This morning, after my prayer time, I found a pocket knife in a drawer and used it to cut a bracelet that had been on my wrist for the past 8 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgoHFLjQ2CA3ACpwxhhKlppsedn62q_Dj1N8-u9WwtnuHu-3g54iClD7E4aeYi7OOzNChBMoMOCE0FQWiDJenaVqLwa373XLVjjy_KkB-kV9ekxzuzT1EPJQqA2HGVD22kH8LOvZEDiKYU\/w300-h400\/20211011_211517_HDR+%25281%2529.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1079\" height=\"1438\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was a gift from a dear Haitian friend.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe I have been shaped by my love of literature, but I tend to see life in terms of symbols; this bracelet represented my connection to Haiti. And I had planned to wear it until the strings broke on their own. (I wish I knew what it was made of because it is one tough little bracelet.)<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am left wondering why I impulsively cut it this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I didn&#8217;t do it just to make Melissa happy &#8211; but it is bound to do that. (The loose ends would sometimes tickle her skin when we hold hands -which is daily.)<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cutting it didn&#8217;t mean that I have given up hope of ever returning to Haiti. I am sure I will at some point. At least for a visit.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it didn&#8217;t mean that I have finally decided to &#8220;move on&#8221;. I had already &#8220;moved on&#8221;, at least in the sense of not being preoccupied with the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As best as I can discern, I cut the bracelet free today because I am starting to get excited about the material I am reading for my classes, which means I have a growing certainty that I am on the right path for moving forward into this next stage of life and faith.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I am making room for whatever comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My wrist feels naked tonight. This morning, after my prayer time, I found a pocket knife in a drawer and used it to cut a bracelet that had been on my wrist for the past 8 years.\u00a0 It was a gift from a dear Haitian friend. Maybe I have been shaped by my love of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10747,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10745\/revisions\/10747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}