On the 23rd of May.

          Twenty four years ago, on this very day, I gave birth to my first daughter, our second child.  I’ve been thinking about her, nearly non-stop since the clock hit midnight and the calendar flipped its page.  Although she lives nearly 300 miles to the north, she is on my mind every single day. 

           What can I say about my Number One Girl that I haven’t written here already?  Did you know that she performed a stand-up routine in her elementary school’s talent show when she was in about the second grade?  Most of you know that the interwebs are a veritable mine field of her brilliant and insightful words.  For years the radio waves were peppered with her production and programming expertise.  She has traveled to places that I can only dream of seeing.

            We named her for my father, but when the two of us are in the same room together, both he, and her own dad, can’t keep up with the speed of our ongoing conversations.  When she and I are in one place we talk so fast, and generally at the same time, only the two of us know what’s being said.  She has a framed verse that says “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, I am my mother after all.”  It is one of her least favorite features, but the resemblance is undeniable, even to her at times.

           She has been independent and out-spoken practically since the moment she arrived.  Early.  Her due date was not for another handful of days, but she was in such a hurry to get here, and make her mark on the world, that she threw my body in to a condition that is known as “failure to progress.”  Even her own birth couldn’t hold her back.  Her rushed appearance brought family members in from vacations and excursions and day trips, for miles around.  She showed up to crash the Memorial Day Weekend – making the national holiday an occaision All About Hanna.  Still certainly memorable, but not the way any of us expected.

          If you have all read the details under the Pentacle People tab, or have been following along here in JulieLand for a while now, you know the reason I call her my Hurricane.  She is frenetic and seems to have more energy than a deadly storm system.  We had a dog one time that couldn’t actually SEE her, she was a bouncing, zooming mass of voice and curly blonde hair.  As a child she would explode out of her bed in the mornings, attacking the day.

           She talked before she had words, and when she played, her characters all had foreign accents, with detailed backstories and complicated lives of drama.   Everything about her had a deep worldly quality, because she brought history and literature to life.  She’s current and newsy and fashionable.  She is artistic and creative and well spoken.  She is beautiful and smart and knowledgable.

       She’s my Hanny Baby, and I am more proud of her than I can ever say.

(Excuse me while I cry for a bit okay?  Here, go read her stuff while I compose my wee self elf.  Seattlest, Nano story, my favorite font, about beets, the dog blog, and this silly one too.  These are the posts I wrote about her before: 2008, 2009, 2010.)

           Our card today is from Doreen’s archangel deck, I am not doing a Special Occasions draw until my girl comes home… which will be this weekend.  Then we will have something to celebrate.  (I sent her gift up with her brother, because I forgot to put it in her sister’s car.  Fortunately the witchlings got many fine qualities from their father, one of them being brains.)

“Clairaudience  ~

Archangel Zadkiel:  Notice the loving guidance you hear inside your mind, or from other people.

You are hearing true Divine guidance very clearly.  It comes in the form of repetitious messages, urging you to improve a situation for yourself and others.  Pay close attention to everything you hear in your mind and with your physical ears.  Divine directives are repetitious, loving, and to the point.  Ask me for help if you need clarification on anything you hear.”

         Today is also Sierra’s birthday, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish her festive happiness, joy, and blessings as well.