Finding relief

…friendship and adventure

A wondrous whirling iridescence arrived in Lunenburg last night.

As Beth was arriving I was settling into my post Rosefinch routine. I had a wondrous Monday.

I met Beth the first weekend in May, and we’ve now known each other a month. It’s strange how some friendships take no time to develop, like you’re working backwards and friendship comes first, and all the explanations come after.

This is one of those friendships.

Lunenburg has been a place where I have found so many friends. Like genuine friends. People who I see weekly. Friends I write with. Make art with. Talk with. Walk with. Play chess with. And cribbage. People who can text me, knowing I’ll respond when I have a moment.

I have also made friends here, as I write. Friends made of words. It’s magical to be an entity who is sometime not-corporeal. That here I am mostly just a brain in a vat.

But I’m also grateful for the friends who find me in the real world. Who make time for me.

Last night I was about to go to bed when I found a tick had taken up residence on my body. It hadn’t secured itself, and when I sat down to pee, it jumped off onto the floor.

Had it bitten me? I couldn’t be sure. So I collected it, froze it. And then stressed all night. Another lost night of sleep.

Thankfully this morning I had art with Heather. I got to sit and talk and laugh. I gave her the prompts for the upcoming week for her tiny book, and told her they’d been inspired by my love of Edward Gorey.

She wasn’t quite sure who he was.

There is nothing like introducing someone you love to something you love that you’re pretty sure they’ll love too. Or at least this is one of the things that brings me an immense amount of joy.

And I was certain Heather would love Edward Gorey. She went down as rabbit hole. I wish you could have heard her laughing.

I wrote this book while she researched and laughed.

📚📚📚#153

Dodgy Heart Valve

Tiny book #153

…then I had to drop off my ghost.

(That’s my ghost in front of the gallery, and if you look to the left, in the window, you’ll see Heather’s wondrous pigeon)

Then I had to manage the outtake for the wondrous art of the Small Stuff shelf, while my friends tried to sort out how to beautifully hang the art of soooo many artists. (My friends have an incredible vision for this and I’m always impressed by how they hang each show)

I decided to change the price of my ghost to make it unsellable (because I want to take me home)…so instead of $642 dollars…I added a zero.

Which I am hoping is enough to make it so no one will buy it.

(Upon the wall where it will stay all of June)

Then I went to the pharmacy. The pharmacists wanted me to bring the tick in.

But I was overwhelmed and so, Beth took me for lunch. And we talked as if we’d known each other all our lives.

Because it feels as if we were supposed to meet.

Our story is going to grow. I wish you could hear her tell the story of her night last night, because it was magic. I also find Lunenburg exquisitely magic. So to have another person seeing that same magic feels affirming.

After our corn chowder and card pulls, I left to go home and get the tick.

I took it to the pharmacy and the delivered the news that it was not a disease carrying tick.

The relief. I got my brain back.

Then I went to help with the next Small Stuff artist, and see if my friends needed any help.

It was a big and beautiful day.

I got in a tiny nap then I invited Beth over for chili…

I don’t always feel comfortable with people in my home. But it felt…so relaxed having her here.

She brought me a bag of unexpected gifts, and we found out that we have the exact same iron turtle.

(I went to look for a picture to prove it, but I think Beth took that one)

…and then we went to improv. The last class of the season. And it was also magic.

The magic is nearly untranslatable to the page tonight. It needs time to percolate.

Tomorrow will be another beautiful day. Beth and I are working on plans. Which I hope to share someday.

Heart,

Wake

Day 16 of 42 of posting the ocean for my friend

(It’s a heron, near Blandford,NS 💖)