The first full week of January has to be Garnet.  It can be hard to photograph this stone, because the best color comes from a backlit specimen.

I learned a lot about Garnet this week.  It hasn’t been a particular favorite of mine and I’m not sure why.  The properties seem very aggressive, which would actually do me some good, but these are also things that can be overwhelming and exhausting over extended periods of time.  You can be committed to conquering your career and pulling the truth out of your peers, but at the end of the day you should really leave that at the office.