My Silver Rings

I have three silver rings that are as special to me as any amount of gold or diamonds. When I travel, I often slip them on so as to not draw any attention to myself. I’ve learned some lessons a long the way in regards to what I should wear, and generally, depending on where we’re traveling, I like to just blend in–not the norm for me usually, I know! A similar scenario happened when we lived in San Salvador, El Salvador. We had just been married and had begun our international life of teaching overseas. This volatile place (at the time) was somewhere that I did not want to draw attention to myself. I remember it taking a while to get used to visible guns and guards everywhere. I was so proud of my new wedding ring and band, yet against the striking poverty of the country, I often found myself pushing my humble diamond into the palm of my hand.

It was at this time in El Salvador, just freshly married, that I started wearing the little promise ring that Kevin had given me when I left for New Mexico after university. He stayed on in Spokane to finish school while I moved down to teach 3rd grade on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation. This little token was his way of saying, Yes, we’re together even though we’re miles apart. (Yes, I still have the actually letter we wrote as this was pre email days!) It’s a very simple ring comprising of two slim bands joined together–representing us. It’s a sweet token, one that I adore wearing. Wow, it’s a 20 year old ring by now! At the time, back in El Salvador as a newlywed, both Kevin and I didn’t mind locking up our wedding rings saving them to wear later in life once we felt safe.

In the meantime, my new husband needed a ring–to show he was married! It so happened on our very first trip to Antigua, Guatemala that we stumbled upon a silversmith on our first jaunt through this charming town. We stopped and ordered our new rings fashioned similarly to the original promise ring yet bigger. By the time the artisan was finished, we had my original baby size promise ring, a mama size version for me, and a papa size for Kevin. Actually our good friend Rusty got the real baby version–he had one made for his toe–unfortunately Rusty has since lost that toe ring, but he did wear it for many, many years. Since living in El Salvador, Kevin has returned to wearing his gold wedding band. And me? Well, every now and then I put away the gold again to wear all three rings detailed to you in this story. I wear the original thin one plus the one for me from Antigua stacked on my lefthand ring finger, and I wear Kevin’s on my righthand ring finger. I love how shiny they continue to become with their extensive wear, and as cheesy as it sounds, with each wear, these three rings just keep gettin’ more love!

*This post has been linked up to Brilliant Blog Posts.