I'm not much of a fan of Jewelry and neither is Michael, however symbolism is important to both of us as is having some physical reminders of each other when we are not together. For thousands of years humans have utilised jewelry to symbolise status and we have taken on board this tradition particularly that of wearing rings to recognise our relationship.

I'm not one for anything pretty, I was given flowers once at a housewarming, I almost didn't know what to do.. then I remembered my manners and said "thank you that's such a kind thought". SO when Michael did broach the idea of Relationship rings I was taken aback and used my fathers line of, well "I have a physical job and it will only get caught and Ill lose the finger...".

After some thinking and time and many many people asking about if I was engaged or not, I thought that the millions and millions of people who use rings to show their relationship status are actually on to something. As a behaviourist I read body language to find out what I need to know, how we as human adorn ourselves is another way we communicate. So I caved into common sense and thought more about the importance of our relationship and communicating that with each other, ourselves and the world around us.

So the other day for our 12 month anniversary of being engaged I made us a pair of rings from a small copper joiner I bought at Bunnings (it was damn hard to find the right size) it took about a week to file and buff them on the sly, then nervously I handed them over (earlier then our actual anniversary...yes I'm one of those...) only to find that the bloody things didn't fit either of us.

Thus began an epic journey to find a jeweler to resize these special rings.. most scoffed at them, these tools of beauty and symbols of our commitment, until after at least 2 dozen across countless suburbs I found a Store owner that could resize them...so happy was I.

The idea is that we will have 3 tiers of rings, these Copper ones for our engagement (the green stain will remind us to wear them when we don't and get into the habit so we don't lose them, and think about the symbols much more than just annoying bits of metal around our fingers. Then upon our Civil Union we will amongst other things... exchange Silver rings and Finally when Equality comes to Australia we will exchange White Gold ones...Hopefully by then we will have been in the habit of wearing them and won't lose them.