A gift of a memory, in art and shadow...

 To be honest, I don't know why people are so kind to me, it is a delightful wonder and amazement to me that they are. Here is an incredible example. 

Over the weekend I got a message from my friend Sandra. She lives in northern Maine, and we met through grooming. She is one of those creative people who can turn rags to riches,(literally) and who has a brain constantly coming up with amazing ideas of things she wants to make. A few years ago when my sweet horse, Chanel, died, Sandra asked for a photo of her. I shared a favorite and then promptly forgot all about it. 

When Sandra messaged she sent me a gasp-worthy photo of something she had created and said she was going to deliver it to me this weekend while she was passing through. I invited her and her husband to supper, and they arrived this evening. 

Using quilting techniques I can barely grasp, fabric, yarn, paint, and a depth of artistry I can only vaguely imagine, Sandra recreated Chanel's likeness for me. She said, "I wanted her to be a shadow." And she is. An incredible, beautiful, magical shadow of my sweet mare.  She even highlighted the rosiness of her velvet-soft nose. The same nose I loved to kiss. When Chanel first came to live here, she barely tolerated my kissing of that warm, sweet spot. By the time she died, she would walk up to me and firmly press that velvet space against my lips, then stand still, seeming to enjoy the kisses she once eschewed. I miss her presence in our pasture, on many levels. 

Sandra captured her in fabric and this gift is incredible. 

There are Brahma chickens and flowers worked in, too. Sandra's husband made me a nice wooden rod to hang the quilt, and there are little Maine pebbles tucked into the lower edge to make the piece hang just so. Everything about it is lovely and magical. I am steeped in gratitude.