Live Oak

The other day at work, I received the most wonderful email.  It was from the spouse of a vendor that I use.  I‘ve never met her before, but she secretly disclosed that her husband’s birthday was coming up in December and that he would be undergoing his third round of chemotherapy right on his birthday.  I was floored since he has hidden that he has been battling cancer.  Nevertheless, she reached out to a number of his friends and colleagues to write him a card, words of encouragement, etc. and to send it to her so that she could suprise himon that tough week.  What a thoughtful spouse!  I was grateful that she invited me to participate.

This weekend, while I was considering his situation, I reflected on something that I recently learned about the live oak tree.  After hurricane Katrina hit and devastated New Orleans, it was found that very few of the live oak trees were damaged or destroyed as compared to many other species that were pummeled. Among the reasons for the resilience of that particular type of tree was the fact that the roots of the trees entertwine one with another and form an underground root system that is very strong.  Also, because the trunks are twisted, they were flexible and resistant to snapping under pressure.

For his envelope I decided to sketch out this little community of live oak trees for my friend to remind him that he has many surrounding him during this storm and that he can make it through this challenge.

This is done in pen and ink and gouache.

Nuts for Envelopes

Yup, had to come back to the envelope thing...still loving sending out little doodles to unsuspecting people inside of my realm of influence.  This one is for a dear friend who is a little nuts (hence the squirrel) from back in Georgia.  A person who, despite having to face some sincere challenges in her life, has been stalwart and passionate about moving forward and making the best out of circumstances that are put in her way.  I'm so grateful to know her and her great example.....also, I kinda miss all the squirrels that we so often saw while living in Georgia.