The One

When I think of my favourite accessory, a few things come to my mind: The silver payals I was given in India and that I haven't taken off since then (pretty uncomfortable in boots though). The purple pashmina stole that has saved me from freezing several times but whose best quality is that it was chosen by you. My iPhone that is my camera to go and my connection to the world everywhere I roam.

Yes, these might be valid options but they are not the one. To make you understand which one it actually is, I have to back up a bit, almost 15 years to be precise.

It was the summer of 1998. My semester in Geneva had reached its peak; with the visit of my friend, I had finally met some locals, and now these locals invited me to a Celtic festival in the bordering France. Of course I went, expecting a fun day but not much more. Upon arrival, the music, the atmosphere, the information about the Celtic culture and origin spoke to me immediately. I felt the music inside me, resonating and vibrating in me as I described here before.

In retrospect, I wonder why I was so surprised about this. All the signs pointed towards it. First of all, I'm from Thuringia, and Thuringians are the epitomic children of Thor, the Norse god. Consequently, I am a legal descendant of these Thor worshippers, the Celts. 
And then my name! If you know my full name or even the name I would have gotten if I were a boy, you know that they couldn't be any more Nordic if they tried.

Anyway, as the night advanced, so did the magic. The sounds moved me, I even joined a Celtic dance without hurting myself or others! In this summer, we went to another festival of this kind and as a memory, my friend from Geneva bought me a pewter necklace with a Celtic cross pendant. Is that it, you may wonder, the mysterious favourite accessory? Breathe easy, it is not.

For this, we have to jump closer to the present time, to the year 2002. At the time of the 'millenium flood' in Germany and Poland, my friend and I spent a sunny vacation in Brittany, Northern France. Now this area, Brittany, Normandy and around, is the heart of the Celtic culture. You can tell from the architecture and jewellery, the monuments and cemeteries as well as the language, Breton, one of the Celtic languages like Gaelic or Welsh.

At a small town market that we visited, I finally saw it: a pair of small silver triskele ear studs. Triskeles are one symbol of the Celtic art and so they practically called out to me. Initially, I wore the ear studs as a pair but since I have an uneven number of ear piercings, wearing just one was simply more practicable on the long run. 

Since that day about 11 years ago, not a day has passed when I wasn't wearing at least one of these earrings. It is my good luck charm, a remembrance of my heritage and yes, a pretty piece of jewellery: