What a Gift

They told me to be at Michele's at 7:30 and we'd head out from there for the birthday gift from my sisters. The appointment was for 8:00 PM.

They're not usually too secretive but they seemed to want to keep this a surprise for as long as possible. I can trust my sisters so I was pretty sure that they were not taking me for liposuction, or botox injections or an eyebrow lift. I didn't think it was a manicure or pedicure because although that would be lovely, I thought my sisters would want to give me something more permanent for my 50th birthday.

We went to an older area of the city. Not exactly dangerous but certainly a place where I'd probably not want to carry a purse while walking on the sidewalk at night. Some of the houses looked, um, unloved and uncared for but the one we approached actually looked cute, with lights on and lovely filmy curtains in the front window.

We knocked on the door and a pretty, funky young woman answered. She looked familiar to me but I couldn't remember where I'd seen her before. I thought that she had an artistic look about her so maybe that was what was familiar. Michele joked about a Thai massage and we (well, I) giggled nervously. Ha ha. Thai massage. That's a good one. You two aren't leaving me here are you? She seems nice and all but I sure don't want to get naked and be walked on while you guys are watching or leaving. There's a limit.

I still hadn't figured out why we were there so they spelled it out for me. "We are commissioning these people to create a unique piece of jewellry for you."

Wow! I have NEVER commissioned ANYTHING! I felt so...cultured. And honoured. And loved.

It was then that I remembered that I had seen her and admired her beautiful work at the Folk Festival this summer. She showed us what she had, we saw her little workshop and we talked about colours, metals, and the things that I liked. She seemed to understand me and her preliminary sketches affirmed that. We talked about swirls and colours, pinwheels, stars, flowers, glitter, shiny, gold, silver and all sorts of things. And she told us that she has an idea of what she can do. I could just tell that she could see the finished product in her mind although she warned us that these things will often look a little different than expected because of all the different colours, metals and finishes that are put together. I think that is one of the great things about this whole process. You put all the things you find beautiful into something and the artist creates a piece that has never been created before. The finished product is a surprise and more beautiful than what you first expected.

So, in a few weeks, I will be wearing a beautiful, unique necklace and earring set that was created by a gifted artist, commissioned by my sisters, just for me. It doesn't get much better than that.

Delighful.