Diamonds in the Dirt

Ironic that diamonds are found buried in the dirt, instead of in the sky that mirrors their memory.

Sought after for its beauty, and yet they hide away buried from the light. One with ash, dust, and rust.

They don't mold into their environment, they sit there calmy, jutting their sharp edges into the dirt, carving shadows against the dark walls that surround it.

Diamonds shine without permissions, regardless of environment or circumstance. They may be dimmed temporarily, but as they reach the surface, they show all that was hidden below in all its glory for all to see.

Their identity remains the same. They are a diamond in the dirt, and they are a diamond in the sky. They are tough, stubborn. They don't fall away like sand or sink into the earth like clay and mud. They stand strong.

Formed under pressure, much like a pearl or a newborn star. A product of preparation, but at peace with itself in the process.

They don't confess their inadequacies to the rubies, nor do they exaggerate themselves to emeralds, or silently compare with the sapphires with their blue glares.

They are content to be a diamond, because they are a diamond. And they know what a diamond is worth. And thus, they shine. They don't reflect the dirt around them, they reflect the beauty inside, their inherited light.

"Or, like the diamond, blazing in the mine,

Thy light to others' lustre may impart

While the intrinsic worth remains thine own."

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Diamond)

''The emerald's or diamond's shine,

 Is valued not for that alone,

 But for its absence in the mine,

 Where thousands lie, of common stone.

And thus, within the world of thought,

The pebble and the lead abound,

But real pearls are seldom brought,

And gold or silver rarely found.

We all have thoughts, we speak them, too,

The world is fill'd with words of men,

But still is priz'd the precious hue,

Of golden thoughts from tongue or pen;

And he who digs and brings to light

A lovely thought, a pearly gem,

'Twill surely shine with lustre bright,

 For men, to cheer and better them.''

-Thomas Frederick Young (The Diamond and the Pebble)

Remember your light.