Athena

The owl is the symbol of Athena, goddess of wisdom and the night. Charlie-girl brought this plate back from Greece years ago, a gift for us from her trip. It makes me think of sunny seas and islands full of crumbling white marble, olive oil, goat cheese and bitter herbs. I've never been to Greece, but in my mind it smells like preserved lemons, tastes like sea salt, sounds of small copper bells and goat hooves. Imagine.

Animal symbols, gifts from trips. Different aspects of our lives visualized as animals, totems, parts of us that recognize the impulse. I have alot of animal based artifacts in this house- most of them are not intentional as in 'oh, i think i'll start collecting pink piggs' but rather found their way to me. A gift, a hand-me-down, a stray in a box lot. Those are the types of animals that are magical.

What do I have? Owls- two, but lots of birds. Tiny glass birds from the factories near home, a carved wooden song bird, the black feathered crow that guards Daddy's box. A dove decoy perched on the studio window. Birds most of all- but also two wooden tigers, a painted large coyote head, a white horse, an armadillo, a few wooden dogs, a cadejo that bear chewed up (bad bear! bad bad bad bear!) frogs, fish, the parade of small animals on the bookshelf, Daddy's lions, the bobs (longhorn skulls), turkey tails, Grendel's twisty dragons. A menagerie, a zoo.

What are we? I am coyote, the man is a jack-rabbit, the boy a dragon. Melissa is a bear, Daddy a lion, Mother a quail-who-became-elephant (elephants are lucky and wise...lovely thing to be). Sister Sue is a cat, hands down, at least to me (it's the eyes, the mannerisms) Barbie a bird, happy in the nest, busy and singing and flying around...

When I was little, I thought I was a horse, wanted to be a horse, pretended to be a horse, and sometimes was a horse. It wasn't until I was a mother that I discovered that this horse is really a coyote, clever and tricky and silly all at once. Now I know~