I'm not one to hang on to personal items and material things.  And though I'm surrounded by collections of lovely objects, hunted and gathered by my husband, who has such a wonderful eye for beauty, my own "collections" are fleeting: a chime of a bell, a cat's purr, biting into a fresh tomato, the first red leaf to fall from the Service Berry tree in the garden, the cool front steps on my bare feet when I retrieve the morning paper....
I suppose those collections are endless for all of us!
But every now and then something breaks, something irreplaceable, and it does make me really sad.  
And that's what happened last night to my favorite Tibetan Singing Bowl.
One of the cats, who had settled down for a snooze on the bookcase, freaked out over some invisible danger, bolted, and knocked everything off the top shelf, including the very large and heavy bowl.
Pandemonium!  All animals scattering in an instant!  Everything crashing to the floor!
Just the way the bowl fell, I knew it had been damaged, and it gave me a sick feeling to ding its side with my fingernail and hear that dull wooden thud.
All of the magic had disappeared.  The vibrant sound and vibration, all those shimmering waves of sound and sensation, erased, completely obliterated. 
No more life left here.

I'll really miss this bowl.  
It was a gift from my husband.  Tuned to the Root Chakra in C, this bell never failed to comfort me instantly.  
Passing through the room, I would frequently hold its weight in my open palm and make it sing for a few moments, somehow calmed.
It always sang with the slightest touch to the rim.  I used it for special liturgies, for yoga and when introducing children to meditation, allowing them to strike the bowl gently, and to make the bowl sing.
It always brought huge smiles of wonder!  And I recognized those expressions of wonder; that's Buddha!
Its deep resonance connected everyone who heard it to the earth we stand on, to our intrinsic groundedness, to the awakened heart.

My husband is so dear, and tried to mitigate the disaster by immediately purchasing a new Root Chakra bowl from the same vendor, and even though the new one coming is a lovely tone, I'm really going to miss the one that died last night.
It does actually feel like a death.....

If you happen to be in the market for a Tibetan Singing Bowl, this is a collector we have used over the years who is very good:

www.silverskyimports.com