Episode 17: The Day I Heard the Voice of the Stone

I still remember well the day I first saw Larimar.

It was during a business trip to Tokyo. I was meeting a friend, and a friend of theirs showed it to me, saying, 'There is a stone like this.' That was Larimar.

The moment I saw that stone placed in the palm of my hand, I caught my breath.

Why does a stone of this color exist?

It was like the sea, like the sky, a color that seemed to have captured the water's surface filled with light. In the pale light blue, patterns like white clouds were softly melting, and I never grew tired of looking at it.

The word 'beautiful' didn't feel like enough.

The moment I saw it, it was as if a door to the world of crystals had opened.

And that sensation led directly to the name La Mer.

Larimar is a stone mined in the Dominican Republic, and it is also said to be a stone of love and peace. 'Lari' is the name of a jeweler's daughter, and 'mer' is a word that means sea.

On the ceiling of my home salon at the time, I had painted a picture of the water's surface. It was a space where light would shimmer, as if there were a presence of water on the ceiling.

When that ceiling and the sea-like color of the Larimar overlapped,

This is it!!

I thought, and changed the shop name to La Mer.

Thinking back now, perhaps I had always wanted to create a place like the sea.

A place that is vast, deep, and embraces everything. A place where you can relax and just float.

I think the name La Mer contained my wishes from that time just as they were.

From then on, I became increasingly drawn to the stones themselves.

Even among the same type of stone, each one has a different expression. There are stones that look bright and friendly, and stones that seem to quietly stay by your side.

The sight of natural stone beads lined up made my heart flutter just looking at them.

I want more people to know about this wonderful world of stones.

With that in mind, I laid out natural stone beads at the salon in front of the station and began preparing to make bracelets for customers by letting them choose the stones they liked.

And finally, a customer arrived to have a bracelet made in that style!

Facing the stones lined up on the table, while picking them up one by one,

This one is beautiful, too.

I'm curious about this one as well.

They were having fun, but they were also struggling to make a final decision.

At first, I also intended to just make a bracelet using the stones the person had chosen.

However, when I went to arrange them, a different sensation suddenly came to me.

This stone doesn't belong there.

This one would be better next to that stone.

This stone wants to go to this person.

It wasn't so much that I heard words with my ears, but rather that the places the stones wanted to go seemed to flow directly into me.

I was surprised.

But strangely, I didn't feel any fear.

Rather, the stones lined up in front of me no longer looked like mere beads, but like little beings that each knew exactly where they were meant to go.

I wondered if it was okay to say something like this.

But I couldn't just pretend that feeling didn't exist.

So, I took a leap of faith and asked the customer.

May I choose them for you?

They replied, I was having trouble deciding, so please do.

That is what they told me.

From then on, I began making bracelets one by one, feeling where the stones wanted to go.

It felt as if the stones in my hands were finding their own places. It was a strange sensation, as if the stones were arranging themselves rather than me making them.

When I handed over the finished bracelet, the customer's expression brightened instantly.

"Wow! Yes, exactly. This is what I wanted."

When I heard those words, I felt incredibly happy.

Looking back, that day was the beginning of my work of "listening to the voices of stones."

From that day on, I began weaving stones while performing readings.

I sense the person's current state, the power they need, the charm they inherently possess, and the things they are about to remember. While feeling these, I listen to the voices of the stones and craft them into bracelets one by one.

Before I knew it, I think I have woven about 30,000 bracelets so far.

Interestingly, I have never been told, "I don't like this."

The stones I have woven for each person mysteriously find their way to them.

And the bracelets were not finished once they were made.

At every turning point in a person's life, the stones change again. Stones that were needed until now finish their role, or new stones become necessary.

It was as if the stones were moving along with the person's journey.

I believe stones are not so much magical tools that grant wishes, but rather beings that remind us of the power within ourselves.

The charms we don't notice ourselves, the feelings we have forgotten, the strength we truly possess, and the kindness that will grow from here on.

Stones quietly reflect those things.

Perhaps I am just listening to them from the side and giving them shape.

Cocoon is a place where peace of mind is blended.

Just as one chooses the scents, words, and time necessary for a person, I believe that stones also serve as an important gateway for a person to return to themselves.