guru
A little under two years ago, some time around my thirty-sixth birthday, I braided together three sets of twelve lengths each of red sewing thread.
I secured both ends with knots, then wrapped the resulting bracelet once around my left wrist and tied it with a double knot.
I made one extra knot in the middle of each of the two hanging strands.
Incidentally, a couple of months later I saw Madonna wearing something similar (sans knots) during her appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
Over time I cut half an inch off the ends, along with the knots at the extremities.
Several months later the middle knots gave way and little by little the threads escaped the constriction of the plait.
During the past few weeks the final knot started relaxing, and it is now just a matter of days before it slips off my wrist.
And it's about time, as I have had enough of telling enquiring people that I am not a Kabbalist, the bracelet is not a rakhi that my non-existent hindu sister has given me during Raksha Bandhan, and that I do not want to be called Esther.
It's something personal. Not too hard to guess either, I would think. Thread, years, knots, intertwined, cut, dissolved, released. Get it?