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Today started off much like yesterday ended:
with a cloud poem.
Interesting how the clouds actually look quite similar,
like today just picked up
where yesterday left off.

This is Chuck.
He apparently loves dangling earrings,
based on the way he lunged at me
and used his freshly-sharpened claws
to climb up my chest in
pursuit of the aforementioned
earrings
less than 5 seconds
after I snapped this photo.

[ :: ]

We paid Nancy a surprise visit today.
When we walked in,
she was sitting in the living room,
cleaning out her pocketbook,
tossing papers on the floor.

We took her for an after school snack,
and of course I just happened to have several
new, blank sketchbooks and markers in my pocketbook.

There were birds

and two-toned drawings

and double-page spreads,
(She always started with the
righthand page
then spread out onto the
page on the left.)

You’ve heard stores about
books and businesses
and inventions
getting their start on
a napkin?

She was uncharacteristically serious
about a few drawings,
intent on what she was doing.

But for the most part,
she was her usual smiling,
contented artistic self.

Today she started every drawing with a word,
usually her name
or the word “love”
or a combination of the two.

Then she set about
embellishing the word

layering drawings
until the word was nearly invisible.

Like always,
she knew when she was finished
with one drawing
and ready to start another.

[ :: ]

Remember those papers she was throwing away
when we first arrived?

Read the line at the bottom of the page:
Hidden pictures.
Coincidence?
Do babies only smile
when they have gas?
I think not.
On both counts.

It was a good day.
Art-filled days usually are.

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning.