There are certain people that come into our lives whom, I'm convinced, at first meeting already know us at the deepest, most personal level.
I am lucky to have encountered a few such friends already where some people wait a lifetime for just one. Your eyes and your heart must be wide open to notice them and let them in.
The friend I'm talking about today has just graced me with her presence for four unforgettable days. As a bonus she brought along her youngest son, Felix, A future Dalai Lama for sure. What an enlightened, delightful young man at the tender age of twelve.
Marianne has always been generous in heart and thoughtfulness. My mailbox has overflowed many times with cards and packages from her (and many other wonderful friends!) I'm very grateful. The first night she arrived we sat in my studio sharing wine and she started handing me gold-wrapped gifts from a large bag. Oh my!!
These silk boxes hold something extraordinary because she had NO idea I was about to try a new art meduim brought to my attention by my most impressive artist friend and fellow Canadian, Neil Ornstein. He was delighted when he stumbled upon this woman's wonderful etegami blog and shared the link with me. We both decided we must try this and agreed to exchange postcards one day. I went out and bought the sumi ink, the watercolor postcards and two basic sumi brushes.
No one at the art store knew what "special red" I was talking about and I had no idea how I was going to carve a signature stamp.
Here comes the magic part!
The longest silk box held three of the most beautiful sumi brushes with blue and white china handles. There is a dragon motif pot for holding the brushes, a blue and white bracelet with wonderful charms, a round blue and white pot that holds something, but what? And a little rectangle box, very curious.
I would have never, ever guessed in a million years that the round jar held that very special red or that the small rectangle box would be my very own hand-carved signature "Lolo" in both English and Chinese.
And remember, she had NO idea I was going to try etegami or that I was looking for these things. As I said, magic. Intuition. Knowing me as well as I know myself perhaps?
And last but not least is the blue spiral painting she did for me (up top) which now hangs in our bathroom (at her suggestion because it is sea-themed.)
The circle of life, the knowing, the ebb and flow and the connection to everything.
Whew! Thank you Marianne, dear friend. I ask myself daily what I have done to have such special people enter my life.
You know who you are. My California girls, my blogging family, old friends who waited for me to come back home and new friends who have helped me feel safe. Thank you, all of you.
And thanks for hanging in for such a long post!
But it was magical, no?
xoxo
Lolo
