MERCI Collection

There is one word every human being has learned to say, in the language of the place where she is standing. In French it is merci. In English, thank you. In Bahasa Indonesia, terima kasih ~ literally, receive love. In Bahasa Bali, hatur suksma ~ an offering of essence. Small, simple, daily. Every culture has arrived at the same instinct: to name aloud, to some other person or some invisible presence, I am received. I am held. I am not owed this and yet I have been given it. Thank you.

This is the entire premise of our MERCI Collection. A small family of three pieces ~ earrings, necklace, and ring ~ each engraved with the small French word for thank you. Each piece is worn where it will be seen many times a day by the wearer herself: at the ears, at the collarbone, at the hand. Each time the wearer catches sight of her own MERCI, she is offered a small quiet invitation to pause, to remember what she has been given, and to name it aloud, if only silently, to herself.

Sandrine, our founder, chose the French word deliberately. She grew up in France, moved to Bali, and built LeeLoobird as a small bridge between two cultures that both understand the daily practice of small thanks. In French, merci comes from the Latin merces ~ meaning reward, wages, mercy. The word carries the trace of an older idea: that thanks is not only politeness, but a recognition that a gift has been given and that mercy is the shape of the world when it is working.

The MERCI Collection is available in 22k gold vermeil and in recycled sterling silver 925, so each piece can be chosen in the finish that matches the wearer's daily palette. Some own the whole collection in one finish. Some own the earrings in gold and the ring in silver. Some layer both finishes together. All are correct. The word is the same regardless of the metal. The prayer does not change.

SANDRINE'S OWN WORDS

— Sandrine, LeeLoobird

Sandrine names two things it is worth understanding together. First, that MERCI is simple yet profound. The simplicity is the point. The word does not need to be more complicated to be true. A small sentence can carry the largest possible feeling, and this is precisely what the MERCI Collection is designed to remind the wearer of. Nothing needs to be added. The one word is enough.

Second, that gratitude is a key ~ the specific instrument that unlocks joy, satisfaction, and a deeper connection to life. Sandrine is naming, in her small quiet way, one of the most-confirmed findings in the whole tradition of contemplative teaching and modern psychology. Gratitude does not respond to a life that is already good. Gratitude makes a life good. The practice of thanks is the practice of noticing what is here. A life that is being noticed is, by definition, a life that is being lived. This is what the MERCI Collection is designed to hold at the wearer's ears, throat, and hand ~ the small daily key to being present.

MEISTER ECKHART  ~  THE ONLY PRAYER

The saying Sandrine quotes in her product card ~ if the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough ~ is attributed to Meister Eckhart, a thirteenth-century German Christian mystic and theologian, and it is one of the most-quoted lines in the whole Western contemplative tradition. Meister Eckhart was a Dominican monk who wrote and preached in Cologne and Strasbourg between 1290 and 1327, and he taught that the entire spiritual life could be reduced to the single practice of thanksgiving. His most direct statement of this idea, in one of his surviving sermons, reads:

— Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – 1328)

The word enough is doing the work of the whole sentence. Eckhart is not saying that thank you is a nice prayer to add to the other prayers. He is saying that thank you, said honestly, said daily, said in the small unremarkable moments of a real life, is the whole of prayer. Nothing more is required. No elaborate liturgy. No perfect words. No specific religion. The small quiet thank-you is already the complete conversation between the woman and the world that is holding her.

Eckhart also wrote a longer sentence that is worth carrying in mind alongside the more famous one. He wrote:

— Meister Eckhart

The meaning, in the tradition Eckhart came from, is that the sacred is already fully present ~ we are the ones who have wandered. The practice of thanksgiving is the practice of returning home. Each small merci a woman says, aloud or silently, is a small step back toward the recognition that she has always been held. That she has always been given. That the gift has been continuous and she has only just begun to notice.

This is the specific religious insight the MERCI Collection is designed to carry at the body. Not that the wearer needs to be religious. Not that she needs to be Christian or French or European. The pieces carry no denomination. They simply carry the one word ~ merci ~ and the wearer's own daily life supplies everything else. Whatever she is grateful for, or would like to notice more of, or has been forgetting to name, arrives as she catches the small inscription. The prayer belongs to her. The word is only the small door.

MARY OLIVER  ~  ATTENTION IS THE BEGINNING OF DEVOTION

Six centuries after Meister Eckhart, a woman was writing very small poems in the woods of Massachusetts, and she was arriving at the same conclusion. Her name was Mary Oliver, and she is the American poet who taught two generations of women how to be grateful without being sentimental. Oliver walked most mornings in the woods near her home in Provincetown. She noticed things. She wrote them down. The whole of her literary output is essentially a long practice of thank-you, said one small object at a time.

Her most famous single sentence, said often between women who have loved her poetry, is this:

— Mary Oliver, Upstream (2016)

Eight small words, and the whole practice of the MERCI Collection contained in them. Attention ~ the choice to look at what is in front of the wearer. Is the beginning ~ not the end, not the entirety, only the doorway. Of devotion ~ the sustained loving return to a thing. The MERCI Collection is a small daily invitation to attention. Each time the wearer catches sight of her own MERCI, she is asked ~ softly, without pressure ~ to look at what is here. The devotion follows.

Oliver has another instruction that is worth carrying alongside. In her small poem Sometimes, she wrote what she called her instructions for living a life:

— Mary Oliver, from ‘Sometimes’, in Red Bird (2008)

Three small verbs. Pay attention ~ notice. Be astonished ~ do not pretend the world is ordinary when it is not. Tell about it ~ say the small thank-you out loud. This is the MERCI Collection at work. The wearer sees the inscription, she notices what has moved her, and she tells about it. Sometimes she tells another person. Sometimes she only tells herself. Either way, the word gets said. The devotion gets begun. The day gets returned to.

CANANG SARI  ~  THE BALINESE DAILY OFFERING

Every visitor to Bali notices them within the first hour: small green squares of woven palm leaf, filled with flowers and grains of rice and a small burning stick of incense, placed on the ground, on the doorsteps of houses, on the dashboards of cars, on the low walls of temples. They are called canang sari, and they are the daily gratitude practice of the entire island.

A canang sari is small, and this is not accidental. She is roughly the size of a woman's open palm. She is made fresh each morning by the woman of the house ~ hand-woven from a fresh cut palm leaf, filled with whatever flowers the family garden is offering that day. She is set down where she needs to be set down: at the household shrine, at the family temple, at the entrance to the compound, at the small guardian statue on the road. And then the woman moves on with her day. The canang sari is not admired. She is not remembered. She is offered, and left, and by the following morning she has been washed away by rain or lifted by wind or gently disturbed by a passing dog. And then, at dawn, a new one is made. The practice does not stop. It has been happening in the same way for centuries.

The Balinese phrase for the practice of offering these small daily gratitudes is ngaturang bakti ~ the offering of devotion. And the Balinese phrase for what the canang sari is doing, at its deepest level, is hatur suksma ~ the offering of essence, which is also the Balinese phrase for thank you. Every canang sari a woman places on the ground is a small worn version of the sentence hatur suksma. Thank you. I have received. I am grateful. I am here.

This is the culture the MERCI Collection was made inside. Every morning, in the small workshop where our pieces are made, our craftspeople begin the day with canang sari. Small woven palm-leaf offerings are placed at the entrance to the atelier, on the workbench, near the tools. Before the first ring is filed, before the first chain is soldered, before the first inscription is stamped, thanks has been said. This is not decoration. This is not a tourism image. This is the daily gratitude infrastructure of the culture in which every LeeLoobird piece is made.

The MERCI Collection is designed as a wearable European translation of the Balinese canang sari. What the Balinese woman does with a fresh palm leaf every morning, the LeeLoobird wearer does with a small inscribed piece of gold vermeil at her hand or her throat or her ear. The gesture is the same. The practice is the same. The word is the same. Only the material has changed. Merci. Hatur suksma. Terima kasih. Thank you. All one small offering, placed at the beginning of the day.

THE THREE PIECES  ~  EARRINGS, NECKLACE, RING

The MERCI Collection is a family of three pieces, each carrying the same one word in a different position on the wearer's body. Each piece can be worn alone. Two pieces layer beautifully. The full three-piece family becomes a small worn morning liturgy ~ thank you at the ears, thank you at the throat, thank you at the hand.

MERCI Earrings ~ The MERCI Earrings are drop-style earrings composed of a small 22k gold vermeil curb chain hanging from a small hoop, ending in a slim silver rectangular plate engraved with the small word merci flanked by two lines of pave Swarovski Zirconia. Available in both gold vermeil finish and full sterling silver 925 finish. Rp 2,850,000. The earrings hang about 4 centimetres below the earlobe ~ small enough to be worn to work, considered enough to be noticed at a small dinner. Each time the wearer turns her head, a small quiet merci moves at her cheek.

MERCI Necklace ~ The MERCI Necklace is the hero of the collection ~ a substantial 41cm curb chain (with 4.5cm of adjustable rings, extending to 45.5cm) in 22k gold vermeil with a protective nano coating, holding a slim horizontal silver plate engraved with the word merci and framed by pave Swarovski Zircon. Available in gold vermeil and full sterling silver 925. Rp 8,750,000. She sits just above the collarbone at the shortest length, and about 4.5cm lower at the fullest extension ~ meaning the same necklace can be worn high and close to the throat, or slightly lower against the sternum, depending on the wearer's mood and the neckline of what she is wearing that day.

MERCI Ring ~ The MERCI Ring is the smallest and most daily of the three ~ a curb-chain-style band, wide enough at the face to hold the small merci inscription flanked by two lines of pave Swarovski Zirconia. Available in sizes 6-9, in gold vermeil and in full sterling silver 925. Rp 2,450,000. This is the piece the wearer will see the most often ~ the finger is the hand's most-glanced-at surface, and the ring becomes a small quiet reminder throughout the day. For wearers who prefer the standalone story of the MERCI Ring in more depth, we have a dedicated A Story of Gratitude essay that expands on the ring's specific place in the collection.

MERCI Bracelet ~ There is also a fourth member of the family, the MERCI Bracelet, for wearers who prefer to carry the word at the wrist as well. She matches the design language of the earrings, necklace, and ring, and completes the full family of four positions. Some of our closest wearers own all four. The word is the same. The wearer decides how many small merci she wants around her body in a given day.

LAYERING THE COLLECTION

The MERCI Collection is designed to be layered, and there is no wrong way to do it. But here are a few small suggestions from our atelier for the wearer building her own daily grammar of thanks.

The small daily kit. The MERCI Ring alone, worn every day, becomes the smallest possible entry point to the gratitude practice. Sized 6 to 9, worn in gold vermeil or sterling silver depending on the wearer's other pieces, she is enough on her own. Many of our wearers begin with only the ring, and add a second piece later.

The morning pairing. The MERCI Necklace with the MERCI Earrings, worn together, form a small vertical prayer up the front of the body ~ thank you at the throat, thank you at the ears. The wearer catches both in the same mirror, in the same small morning glance. Two small offerings, placed together. The most-chosen pairing for our gifting sets.

The full three-part practice. The earrings, necklace, and ring worn together give the wearer a small worn merci at each of the three most-glanced-at positions of the body ~ ears, throat, hand. This is the closest thing the MERCI Collection has to a full daily liturgy. It reads as considered rather than heavy. The pieces share design language (curb chain, small plate, pave stones) so they are read together as a family rather than as three separate messages.

The MERCI Collection layers beautifully with our Gratefulness Necklace, which sits lower on the chest and holds a longer inscription. Some of our wearers own both ~ the Gratefulness at the sternum for the deeper daily practice, the MERCI at the collarbone for the small quick moment. The two form a small two-tier gratitude architecture: the long slow one, and the small immediate one.

CARE  ~  KEEPING THE COLLECTION AT ITS BEST

The MERCI Collection is designed for real daily wear. The 22k gold vermeil is a serious professional standard ~ 3 microns of gold plated over solid recycled sterling silver 925, protected by a nano coating that helps hold the finish through years of use. The sterling silver 925 finish variants develop a natural patina over time that most wearers actually come to love ~ if the patina ever wants to be lifted, a soft polishing cloth returns the surface to brightness.

A few small notes to keep the collection at its best. Remove pieces before showering, before entering the sea, and before applying perfumes or heavy body oils ~ the chemistry of chlorine, salt water, and concentrated fragrance is not friendly to any vermeil or delicate pave setting over time. Store the pieces separately in soft pouches so the small Swarovski stones do not knock against each other in a shared drawer. Do not use ultrasonic cleaners on the pave settings. Warm water and a small soft brush is enough for occasional cleaning.

Each piece of the MERCI Collection arrives in our small LeeLoobird pouch, ready to be worn or ready to be given. If the collection is a gift ~ and much of it is, because gratitude is a natural thing to want to give ~ we recommend a small handwritten note tucked inside the pouch. The receiver will not need the collection explained. She will already know.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the MERCI Collection?

The MERCI Collection is a family of three main pieces ~ earrings, necklace, and ring ~ each engraved with the small French word for thank you. A fourth piece, the MERCI Bracelet, extends the family to the wrist. Each piece is available in 22k gold vermeil (3 microns over recycled sterling silver 925) or in full sterling silver 925, with delicate Swarovski Zirconia pave stones. Made and blessed in our Bali atelier.

Why did Sandrine choose the French word MERCI?

Sandrine, our founder, is French by birth and now lives in Bali. She chose MERCI because the word carries, in French, a deeper etymological root ~ from the Latin merces, meaning reward, wages, mercy. The word is not only politeness. It carries the idea that a gift has been given and that mercy is the shape of a world that is working. Simple on the surface, deep underneath.

What does the quote about the only prayer mean?

The saying ~ 'If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough' ~ is attributed to Meister Eckhart, a thirteenth-century German Christian mystic. He was teaching that gratitude, said honestly and daily, is the whole of prayer. Not one prayer among many. The whole of it. Nothing more is required. The MERCI Collection is a small daily wearable reminder of exactly this.

Can I mix gold and silver pieces from the collection?

Yes ~ the collection is designed to be mixed. Some wearers own the whole collection in gold vermeil for a warmer palette. Some own the whole collection in sterling silver for a cooler palette. Some own the ring in silver and the necklace in gold. All are correct. The word is the same regardless of the metal ~ the prayer does not change.

What are the Swarovski Zirconia stones for?

The small pave Swarovski stones frame the word MERCI on each piece ~ small sparks of light around the inscription. Read symbolically, they are the small moments of noticing that a gratitude practice generates: the small brightness that appears when a woman remembers to pay attention. Practically, they add a subtle luminosity that catches the eye of the wearer herself when she glances down.

Is the MERCI Collection a good gift?

Yes ~ it is one of our most-given collections. Frequently gifted for birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, retirements, or between women in the small circle simply as a small daily reminder to keep noticing. The pieces arrive in our LeeLoobird pouch, ready to be given with a small handwritten note. Popular gifting pairings: the necklace + earrings together as a set, or the ring on its own for a smaller gesture.

Will the gold vermeil last?

Yes. Our 22k gold vermeil is 3 microns thick and protected with a nano coating ~ significantly more durable than standard fashion jewelry plating. She is designed to hold her warmth through years of daily wear. If the vermeil ever needs reviving after long use, our atelier can restore the plating. She is meant to be worn, not preserved.

How do I choose between the gold and silver finishes?

A small rule of thumb: choose the finish that already appears most often in the wearer's daily jewelry drawer. If she wears mostly gold pieces, gold vermeil layers into her existing collection seamlessly. If she wears mostly silver, sterling 925 is the cleaner choice. Wearers who mix metals in their daily life can own the collection in whichever finish speaks first ~ the word remains the point.

Where can I see the full collection?

You can view the full MERCI Collection and our other gratitude pieces at leeloobird.com/collections/necklaces, /rings, and /earrings. Each piece is designed, hand-made, and blessed in our Bali atelier.

The MERCI Collection is not a religious statement. It is not a French statement. It is not a jewelry statement. It is a small daily wearable reminder of the one word that every human being has learned to say, in whatever language she was born into. Merci. Hatur suksma. Terima kasih. Thank you. One small word, worn at the ears, at the throat, at the hand. The word does not change the world. The word changes the wearer. The wearer, changed, does the rest. That is the entire practice.