Every day . . . something to feel, something to experience, something to trouble or uplift, to sadden or gladden, to depress or inspire. I hope you’ve all been as fully, deeply engaged with life and all its fluctuating, erratic effects as I have been these last several days. In the middle of highs and lows one can find the counterbalances. For modeling, I exhaust my body to the point of physical pain, but my hard work is acknowledged, appreciated, and begets the creation of art. I find, to my great horror, Prince the cat dead in the street after having been hit by a car. But I found him. Me. His adoptive mother. I removed him from the street and gave him an intimate, spiritual burial in my garden – the same garden in which he was born as a wild feral 3 1/2 years ago, under the hydrangea bushes. Prince is back home. My grief is swirled up with a sense of consolation that, purely by chance, I happened to be driving on that very street and was able to retrieve him before he got smashed by more cars. Or maybe it wasn’t “chance” at all. Family strife gets hot, then calms, then gets hot again. But we always manage to work it out. And an old flame who is back in my life, has shown me the joys of re-connecting. With wondrous delights, laughter, and thoughtful beautiful sharings, he and I are healing past pain and remembering the things that bonded us the first time around, and forging new bonds as well 
It frustrates, it thrills, it worries, soothes, inflicts grief, elation, fear, and happiness, but through it all, perhaps in spite of it all, life is beautiful . . .
For my Momma’s birthday today, her favorite, Edgar Degas. At the Cafe des Ambassadeurs, pastel, 1885:
