Strand of pearls
A necklace of matched pearls — many slow, individually grown gems strung into one piece.
A strand of pearls in a dream is the dream's image of many slow, individually grown gems brought into one wearable line. Each pearl is its own years of accumulation; the strand is a selection set against each other. The dream brings the strand when something in your life — a career of small good acts, a series of friendships, a body of work — has accumulated to the point where the individual pearls can be read as one length. A strand worn with the right carriage is the dream affirming the assembled life. A strand broken with the pearls rolling across the floor is the dream noting that the string that held everything together has snapped, and the small individual goods are now scattered where they will be hard to gather back.