SPEECHLESS!

Last night I had dinner with my friends Ann and Anne, aka the Tex-Ann(e)s. Seeing them ALWAYS makes me feel better, even if I'm already feeling good to begin with. Last night was not an exception to this reliable rule.

Before we ate fresh veggies from Ann's garden, Anne presented me with a gift. Gifts always make me nervous and excited and worried and beside myself like-- Do I deserve this? Will I understand it? Why I am getting this?

So I opened it and, seriously, people, I was instantly winded with such a ferocious cross between sorrow and joy that I was, literally, breathless and speechless. When I finally did find my voice I think I said something like this, "Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god. I can't believe this."

Any of you who've followed the blog recently know my difficult and beloved Satch passed a couple of weeks ago. It was so hard in the end and I was really losing it. Anne is, like me, a total dog freak. She so got what I was going through that she commissioned the above portrait of Satch in his memory.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? AM I THE MOST RIDICULOUSLY LUCKY BLESSED PERSON YOU KNOW? (I think I must be.)

I can't thank Ann enough. And I can't properly thank Linda Sheets, the artist, who-- though she never met Satch-- captured his spirit perfectly. And bonus points-- the collage bits? Those are from an old Bible. Leviticus to be precise. Thank you Ann. Thank you Linda. Check out more of Linda's work here.