Don’t ask me why I do what I do, but lately I’ve been growing crystals. Not the meth kind. I know, that’s a terribly bad joke. My crystals are purely legal and grown in a heat-safe glass jar in my kitchen.
I feel like a kid in 8th grade science class.
It’s all part of a larger, geode-making project that I’m involved in. The fake crystals will be part of the fake geodes. It sounds much less attractive than it is in real/fake life. Sort of like the housewives of wherever but without the drama, false eyelashes and botox.
If you aren’t confused by now - good for you. I know I am. One of the best things about growing crystals is the simplicity of the process. It takes two ingredients: water, and something that will crystalize. You can use sugar, salt or my ingredient of choice: borax, which is actually a type of salt - just not the kind we sprinkle on our food.
The borax is dissolved in hot water until the water is saturated and no more borax will dissolve. At this point if you’d like to color your crystals you can add alcohol ink.
I make my own alcohol ink (because why wouldn’t I?) out of rubbing alcohol and the ink saturated portion of a permanent marker. Again - two ingredients. Could these processes be any simpler?
Add your color to the saturated solution in a heat-safe glass container. Now, as in 8th grade, we add something dangling in the liquid to serve as a base for the crystal formation. I tie a small object to a thread, hang it into the water mixture, secure it to a wooden dowel and cover with a towel to preserve the heat.
And then I wait. With borax, I’ll have crystals in less than 24 hours.
It’s almost magic. It is, unless the crystals don’t form as hoped. Sometimes they don’t form at all. Sometimes that happens.
But here’s the best part. Even if the crystals fail, you can try again. You can reheat your water, add more borax if needed, melt any ill-shaped crystals that may have formed and look for something even better in the morning.
I see this as a metaphor for life. Perhaps we are all like crystals: forming and growing based on our surroundings and the things and people who most closely touch us. We grow, bit by beautiful bit, with each piece of our crystal adding to our magnificent and light-reflecting selves.
But what if things don’t go exactly as planned? What if our life crystals aren’t even close to what we wanted or expected?
What if life isn’t what we wanted or expected? I’d like to propose a thought: Life may not be what we expected, but it is what we make of it. It is what we perceive of it.
We can remold our crystals at any point. We can redo, rebuild, reinvent and change the organization of our crystals to the very core.
We have the power to make life more stunning that it ever was before.
If you are growing in your own space right now, keep it up. Keep growing. Keep building.
Let’s stun the pants off of life. Let’s allow it.
Jill Pertler is an award-winning syndicated columnist, published playwright and author. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.
