Alchemy was an ancient process in which raw material was heated, observed, tested and observed again. The final product, it was hoped, was gold. But these mercenary scientists soon found that true gold is difficult to manufacture and today the term alchemy applies to a magical process or shift that leads to change.

Event designers are one of today's alchemists, turning everyday materials into any number of fanciful creations such as these organic creatures from AirDD ...

Or this dance floor from Holowalls that looks like fire and water when you walk over it...

But we are each our own alchemist, constantly shaping who we are. And because it's impossible to bend cold metal, life adds the heat. In his book Care of the Soul for Everyday Life, Thomas Moore wrote, "We work on the stuff of the soul by means of the things of life." We shape our personalities with our challenges and joys. We burnish our rough spots with compassion and humanity that we learn only through experience. We polish the elements that make us shine with creativity. Even sadness goes into the mix and gives us texture where we once were smooth and hard and adding patina.

We test, observe, add and subtract elements, test again, then poke, prod and wait until we discover ... gold? By absorbing what Moore calls "the things of life" what we really find is what the alchemists of yesterday wanted to obtain through scientific shortcuts -- a metal worth nothing on the open market yet one that is more precious than anything. And that is by no means fool's gold.