DEAR FAIRY...

Raj is too embarrassed to openly say this is now his favorite season - not because of the holidays - but because he's in love! Me being the most naive,  smallest, and most eager to please, I have agreed to this photo-shoot as his MerryEveryThingFairy Holiday Card! Hopes ya likes it! We sparkle!
Mum's best friend works in Seattle public schools in one of the most dangerous,
at-risk neighborhoods in the whole City (and this is just a Middle School) but when she wears her Menorah Hat all lit up atop her red hair and radiant smile, all the kids high-five her and think she's too cool! (Which is our opinion, too!)
So, although mum won't be lighting candles on OUR menorah (she promised her friends and the maintenance team...no matches...after they politely expressed "concerned TERROR!") but we will be spinning, snatching, and chewing up our wooden dreidels faster than you can say "aleph." Oooh, we can hardly wait!

Hey, guess what? It finally raining for the first time this month, breaking all weather records for driest December! As we approach the Winter Solstice, it would be misleading to even say we have "days"...What we have now are a few hours near noon, maybe two, that are Less Dark than the Deep Night! Soon, we will be down to only minutes which, though not technically "daytime" will qualify as "not exactly Night-time." So, we need our Holiday lights, Christmas decorations, Chanukkah menorah, and every bright, sparkly thing we can get our paws on...For this reason, Raj & me made this special for you Fairy, because this is about as bright as it gets up here in the deep, haunting, grey Heart of a Great Pacific Northwest winter!

May we join you for tea some time? Tonight we may try to squeeze into Mouse's
Matchbox because it's cold and we have our cuddle cups but where is Fairy?

Love,
Calvin the small

Holiday Greetings to All and to All a Good Night!

love,
Calvin, the small menorah-wearing Rain-Oh!Dear

Soul of an Orca

    ORIGINAL DRAWING MADE IN SEATTLE

FIRST PAINTING CREATED FROM PRINT OF ORIGINAL DRAWING
MADE IN SEATTLE...THIS ONE IS
FOR SALE. NOT THE ORIGINAL.
THIS IS OUR STORY.


There is a buyer who wants to buy the orca painting, shown above in black. This is one version of many I will complete based on the Original (on top.) The title of the original is: "Oh, Killer Whale, please teach me to breathe underwater!" and it
was drawn at a cafe across the street from the hospital in Seattle where Edwin had his cancer surgery, which included some pretty close calls, post-op...I was helpless to do anything other than ask the orca to teach me how to continue functioning in the midst of what felt like the impossible...the drawing was a plea...I sat and drew and drew while Edwin slept or had whatever they needed to do done. The Cancer Center there had an Art Therapist, can you believe that? We discovered that drawing and making birds' nests was the way my aching soul chose to express its pain. So, I rode the orca, like the girl in the movie "Whale Rider" when it took her beneath the sea...she did not drown. Nor did I. And Edwin lived.

Here's the catch. The buyer does not want the "finished" painting, she wants to also see the original...as disorganized as I admittedly am, I can usually ferret out what I need...given time. And functional neural synapses!

The truth is, I don't want to sell it. The original would sell for a LOT more money and I currently have one dollar and one cent in my checking account. I checked today. But more coming in from art sales last month will get us through the rest of the month...the point being that - financial need aside - this is "my totem whale" and it cared for me...and does not want to be "captured or sold" as if it lived in a zoo or Sea World! It wants to swim quietly in my soul, and has therefore dived to the depths of the sea where I cannot retrieve it...for now.

Whether the buyer will want the "finished" repainted version I cannot know.

But this has been the most extraordinary spiritual experience I have ever had with a piece of art...the second most extraordinary experience also was about orca whales, baby orca whales. So, apparently, the Orcas have chosen me.
We have three non-migratory pods who live right here in the San Juan Islands.
I have never seen one, refusing to take an "orca boat tour" as I believe these boats disrupt their normal behavior, placing them at risk. That is not respectful.
So I have only seen Orcas within.

That is all I have to share.  I don't know how the buyer will respond to this,
but I am truthful about this experience and we do live amongst some pretty darn Sacred Native American land, sea, mountains, and sky: All deserve the utmost Respect. They humble me.

Love,
Chana

A Day In The Life

             This photograph was as blurry as I am before the coffee kicks in.

Once highly caffeinated, I am ready to become "calm." Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn't it? Indeed!

Nobody said I was organized: Just "kinda."
(On a good day.)
Rare indeed are they!

Guess What?

"Hey, Mac, just got my nails trimmed and now headed for the Snowflake Hut where I'll look so miserable after my nail trim that mom will feel bad and give me lots of scritchy-scratches!"

"Hey, YumYum, I just had MY nails trimmed too! Just for that I AM GOING THERE, TOO!"

"Hrumph! Then I'll race ya, but since I'm already on Runabout, Ha-Ha-Ha-on YOU! Cuz I gonna win!"

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! Mom, it's me, your loving Mac, Free Me! Free Me!"

"Hey, you two, calm down there...nice nails, by the way...hey, YumYum, you were so good during the Trim of the Season, how about a little sumpin'-sumpin' as a reward for (unusually) Good Piggery?"

"TO THE SNOWFLAKE HUT, MOM, TO THE SNOWFLAKE HUT THIS INSTANT!"

(oh, MacNutPie: "mu-ah-ha-ha, Mu-AH- Ha -HAAAAAAAAAAAAH!")

Scritchy-Scratches in Our New SNOWFLAKE Hut!

"OOOOOHhhhhh.....AaaaaaaHhhhhhhh, mom, you sure know my FAVE-O-FAVE scritchy-scratchy spots!"

(Way above is YumYum in our new extra-large Snowflake Hut, compliments of our anonyMouse benefactor and Jen of Jen's Custom Crafts!) 
"Mom, I know in my youth I was a swashbuckling Pirate, but now that I am

becoming a wise sagely Pig, the MedicinePig of the Herd, scritchy-scratches have become more meaningful than Adventurous Pillaging and Food Snachery...mom, have I mellowed out?"

MacNutPie has his say:

"HEY, ME TOO, ME TOO, OR I'LL PRESS MY NOSE INTO YOUR CAMERA! C'MOM, SAVE SOME FOR 'THE MAC' CUZ, AFTER ALL, I'M GETTING
FA-MOUSE NOW HERE and ABROAD!"

"MacNutPie, once YumYum is settled, tucked in, and ready for his nap in the Snowflake Hut, you will have me all to yourself, precious dear."

"GOOD! Because I been shakin' my money-maker for you real hard, mom."

"Actually, Sweetheart you have been 'shakin' your money-maker' for homeless piggies in England and abroad, and the magazine that a certain so-and-so will be appearing on the cover of in the upcoming Holiday Issue which will even include an interview. We all know that giving makes us very happy because not a one among us has not been homeless or unwanted at one time or another, and we never want ANYBODY to ever feel like we did, remember?"

"Mom...you just made me cry...FatMacNutPieCry-ing..."

"I know, honey, me, too. It really feels better to give than receive...although it sure feels good to receive, because the Circle of Love must go 'round & 'round!"

sniffle. sniffle.

"row." sniffle.

sniffle. "row."

where's the tissue, please?

HAVE A VERY FAIRY CHRISTMAS!