i moved gently into the morning around 4:30am...the world was quiet in the cool stillness just before dawn arrived...diva yawned & stretched, and decided it was too early to follow me outside... good strong coffee steamed in my mug, as i sat on the step, lacy ferns tickling my legs...i let my mind wander through my to-do list for the week and for the day...past the should's and have-to's and want-to's...ever closer to that very moment...realizing again, with incredible gratitude, the life i have. as the dawn began it's charted course across the sky, sounds of busy began - a woodpecker making hollow drumming in search of breakfast, followed by it's hysterical laughing call...a cardinal giving it's one-note call over & over...finches and tufted titmouse chattering at the feeders and in the trees, awaiting their turn impatiently...a chipmunk scurries up to my perch, stopping, looking, deciding friend or foe. i head back inside and up to my studio to begin a talisman necklace for a person i know, yet have never met...the sterling emblazoned with the name of the most magical place, "Squam." Making these necklaces has been such a balm...as i twist wire and match beads and gemstones and found objects, i remember the feel of the week...of being Seen and Heard...of a creativity being born, drawn from places i didn't know existed. and although the requests have been coming from incredible women i have never met face-to-face, i feel a bond with them. and it is my privilege to make these reminders of all that week stands for, and becomes... how a person re-learns themselves, and stretches beyond what they thought was possible, and becomes -little by little and sometimes all in a great rush - their best self. Live in the opening where there is no door to hide behind. - Rumi