The speck in my ring, the diamond in my marriage.

21 years ago, this past Valentine's Day, my husband proposed to me. We were at a quaint, romantic restuarant when the event occurred. He placed a solitare on my promised ring finger. The perfect clarity, color, sparkle, grade, etc. He proudly explained the information on his ring purchase.Over the years. Over the hills. Over the valleys. I wore this ring. I had the prongs remounted several times. Lost the diamond on the floor one day. Looked for hours to find it. Being a surgical nurse, my diamond became more of chore to wear to work as it caught on the gloves and I had to remove it inorder to scrub for procedures, so I took it off a couple of years ago and just wore my wedding band. I have always wanted a bigger diamond. I have always wanted a different shaped ring. I never liked the tradtional sets. We decided we would go look at a new ring for me. I wanted just to wear the one ring, with a simple, low, no prong, elegant setting,and.... a bigger diamond. As we discussed my vision with a local jeweler, he drew out my dreamed of design. A Tiffany setting. Then came the diamond selection. Small stones for large prices. As he laid different sizes and styles of diamonds out on his cloth, I realized I wanted a much larger stone. Shallow and maybe alittle selfish, I wanted a larger diamond. He brought out this particular diamond. Much larger than mine. A different cut. Very elegant, but it was flawed with a speck. Unable to view with the human eye from above, but able to see from the side, slightly. With my proposed mounting, the diamond would look beautiful, and it was a good price. It was perfect. Today, as I look at my unusual ring, simple, different, it really doesn't look like an engagement ring by the traditonal standards; however, it was made for my standards. This morning, in church, I glanced at my ring, and it appeared even more beautiful than before. It's color so bright. The light danced from it's edges encased in the secure setting. The flaw, the speck, isn't an issue. It cannot even be seen. My husband would have purchased the perfect stone, and infact, he did several years ago, but somehow this speck says something about the beauty in this ring. Twenty years ago, things needed to be perfect. Today, I know it all hasn't been perfect, but it has made us see the beauty in reconizing the flaw, only we can see, but caring enough to mold a secure setting around it's edges. These edges won't wear down.