Today is the anniversary of my near death experience. While some people might not think back on that sort of memory fondly, to me it was wonderful, because I gained two of my greatest assets that day. Firstly, I stopped fearing the moment of death. I was just close enough to recognize that when it does come, it won't hurt. (Although I remain utterly terrified of suffocating or drowning--nothing will alleviate that.) But secondly, I unleashed my greatest weapon on the world: The Destroyer. She tore her way free of my body, and has treated every sealed package she has encountered since with equal disdain. Every cardboard box, every plastic bag, every invincible blister pack has fallen to her shredding impatience. As she grew older and stronger, the awesome power of destruction grew with her. She is a grownup now, and has nearly mastered her skill, learned how to harness and control it. We still get a lot of "I've destroyed the radiator in my car...again..." phone calls, but I've stopped worrying so much about whether she can handle the scrapes she gets into. She uses her powers for good now. Mostly. Just don't ask her big sister for an opinion on that. She's still a little sore over the ratio of her personal belongings that survived intact to those that fell before The Destroyer.
I can't remember how or when she and I became so amused by owls. We see decorative owls for the garden or as wearable art, and we feel the inescapable compulsion to text each other a photo, captioned: "Helllllooooooo!!" (Said in the comical queen of England voice). So naturally, when I was at that craft show from Piccolo Spoleto last month, and I found a glassmaker whose specialty was owl pendants, I had to have one for her. I picked one with a good face, and saved it to send for her birthday. I don't keep a lot of wrapping paper around the house anymore, but I had an inspiration. A few weeks ago, she sent a photo of her cat, whose owlish expression might have been the genesis of our obsession. The pose and the backdrop looked like the quintessential Olan Mills portrait. I wrapped the pendant box with brown craft paper, on which I painted that cat picture. It came out very well, if I do say so myself, especially considering it was a miniature. The whole thing was about two inches by three inches. I even liked it in progress, and I think I want to do something else just like it, but stop when it looks like the early stages of this painting. I have a base picture in mind to try when I get the chance.
We have called this child by her Destroyer nickname since she was a toddler. But it wasn't until this afternoon, days after I was certain that I was going to use that song for today's post, that I found out Ray Davies of the Kinks shares her birthday. It's like it was meant to be. Happy birthday to both of them.
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