Verbal Description
A landscape image
In the foreground, dark silhouettes of two leaning willows shadow one another, bowing slightly left. They show as gnarled black outlines on a blue horizon. The image captures only the midsections of the leafless trees. A few jagged branches extend from the trunks and bend in various directions.
Thin, wispy branches dangle, suspended from the top edge of the image. The limbs of both trees are accompanied by their own series of these flowing, wispy branches that intertwine between the two dark trunks. A haze of smaller branches outlined against the blue sky creates the illusion of a backdrop behind the solid trunks and limbs.
The leafless Willows overlook a hazy palette of charcoal blue. The textured background is a deception of separate colors; darker storm clouds with breaks of lighter clouds.
It is your birthday, and I am filled
With gratitude for the gift of your life.
I want to celebrate you—with you—
And plan a party where Presence
Is the only present you unwrap
In the twinkling eyes of those you love.
Though we may be separate in countless ways,
We are rooted in the same earth
And share a knowing that surpasses words.
You taught me love’s many faces
Through your unceasing desire for my joy
Amidst a world that seemed, at times, unjust.
What could I possibly offer you, dear one,
That is not already given from the depth of my heart?
Our connection extends beyond biology
Into a place of unconditional truth
Where outdated expectations and needless needs
Are set aside for the persistent need to be real.
We no longer look at one another exclusively as “mother” or “daughter”.
Lucky us. We have become old friends, soul friends.
And we give one another the blessed gift of ourselves
Wrapped with the sometimes tenuous packaging of truth
But always tied with the blessed and beautiful labor of Love.
