Objects have secret lives too. — I’m a professional illustrator. My job is to tell stories through images I create for my clients. Translation: I’m a professional visual storyteller. I should not have been surprised when I realized that many objects in my house whisper their stories to me — all the time. Thank the Goddess above and below I…

These stories are the reverse of “ a picture is worth 1000 words.” I’m the one who makes the pictures. Art is a form of visual storytelling. Good art, in my opinion, stands on it’s own. Good art transcends time, place, era, historical context, it doesn’t or shouldn’t need a…

Planted with love, my garden now haunts him — “Faith in the future is found in planting a garden.” For weeks I’ve been reading this phrase written on the chalkboard hanging in my kitchen, refining a word here and there. I think I’ve got it. Gardening IS a leap of faith. In the fall I buy giant allium bulbs at the cost of — gulp — $5 a pop…

Can be breathtaking — Never in a million years did I ever imagine that I would be single at this point in my life. Who sees that for themselves? The era I grew up in had a conventional norm, which was to find a partner to journey through all of life’s ups and downs…

Taught Me Even More Gratitude — My elbow was dislocated for 28 hours. The pain was mind-numbing. I didn’t know it was dislocated. Had I seen the x-ray I would have been able to inform the highly incompetent doctors-in-training who initially oversaw my care in the ER that, indeed, my elbow was not as it should…

We took the high road and shut her down — My sister is a rather dreadful human. She was and always has been mom’s favorite. Mom never tried to hide this fact from my two brothers and I. When we were young, I wanted nothing more than to be her friend. I’m the oldest of four, she was the third…

And it’s largely because of you — Willow wanted to go through my jewelry box this afternoon. I let go of ever doing this particular thing with my daughter long ago, they made it very clear their disinterest in jewelry. It was very sweet and heartwarming that they wanted to look through my lifetime of treasures. When…