I am fascinated by the vast variety of life forms that surround us. It is miraculous that a random pile of recycled atoms can achieve order and then incorporate an energy that enables it to function in a species-specific manner. And this then goes multiple steps further, allowing individual life forms to thrive and interact, and to have distinct places in communities, or eco-systems, and ultimately an interconnected web of eco-systems that comprise the tangled, yet ordered lovely mess which is life on Earth.

According to Reference.com, there are seven signs of life which include moving, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition. These functions can be found in countless wonders such as tadpoles, lichen, and insects. But some signs of life are evidence of recent life left behind, transcending the above definition...bird egg shells resting in grass, feathers fallen of a bird in flight, bones found in the forest, seashells on the beach, and driftwood by a river all tell tales of experiences had, lives lived. These signs of life are simultaneously signs of death.

Signs of previous human life can also be found in our midst on lucky days. The blue and green slag that can be found in the Gale River downstream from the Franconia Iron Furnace resonates with the spirit of those who worked so hard to mine ore, transport it, and then smelt it into the iron that made their lives easier. And of course Native American artifacts are relics from the human lives that populated the landscape hundreds and thousands of years ago.

And to go back even further, signs of ancient life on earth also come to the surface where eras collide. Fossilized coral, shells, sharks' teeth, wood, and amber are clear evidence of the ancient history of the life that predates us, and ultimately led to us.

That we live on a planet with such diversity of life; current, recent and ancient, never ceases to amaze and reassure me. I celebrate in my jewelry the evidence of this; some foraged, and some whose imagery I have been inspired by. To quote what a famous children's author almost said:

                                                                 “From There to Here,

                                                                  From Here to There,

                                                                        Signs of Life

                                                                                are

                                                                         Everywhere!”