The Creation of a Bronze Sculpture

Simone inspected every inch of the investment casting over the wax mold. 

She’d done the wax chasing, using delicate tools for minute scraping, 

hot tools for filling in imperfections. She studied it now, and deemed it ready. 

Shelter in Place

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And the pour—that moment of truth—always enthralled her. Those quick movements of workers moving in unison, the fluid flow of deep, glowing gold like melted sunlight. 

Inside the shell, her work, her art, her vision filled with that melted sunlight. 

The negative became positive, and the symbol and study of the man she’d come to love would be born.

Shelter in Place 

"She’d come for the adventure, for the thrill. For the freedom."

“Yes, exactly. I bided my time. When I was eighteen, I left. 

There was insurance money that came to me then, and a small trust 

fund from the sale of our house in Saint Louis. I planned to go to college.

 I had no idea what I wanted to do or be, so I decided to take a year off first and 

do something my parents had always talked of doing. To tour Europe.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, alone.” She sipped her wine now, leaning back on the counter. 

Had she ever told anyone even this much before? 

Since the night everything changed for her? No, no one. What would have been the point?

“I was thrilled to be alone, to have no schedule, no one telling me what to do. 

It was both an adventure and a pilgrimage for me. 

I backpacked through Italy.”

Wolf Moon

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By StockSnap - 

https://pixabay.com/en/people-woman-travel-adventure-trek-2591874/ 

archive copy at the

 Wayback Machine (archived on 19 January 2019), CC0,

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72553316

This Unexpected Travel Trend Is Especially Popular Among Women Right Now

Solo trips are one of 2019’s biggest travel trends, 

and women are definitely leading the charge.

Real Simple

Beautiful Tattoos Inspired by Invisible Illness

Turning at the mirror, she brushed the weight of it off the back of her left shoulder and exposed the small tattoo of a full moon.

That had been a young, foolish act, she thought now. Branding herself with a symbol of her disease.

But it served to remind her of what she was, every day. Not just at the full moon, but every day. 
And when she was cured, it would remind her of what she’d survived.

Wolf Moon

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By Amber STclaire (originally posted to Flickr as tattoo_shop) [CC BY-SA 2.0  

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

When you’re fighting an invisible battle, sometimes a visual representation can help encourage you to keep going and remind you of what you’ve already overcome. 

The Mighty

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“And what’s this here?” He skimmed those fingers over her other shoulder, 

and the

small tattoo of a full moon.

“A reminder, that it’s always part of me.”

Wolf Moon

Our brains need silence to make sense of things

“I upset her,” Reed began as Simone walked away.

“No.” Mi laid a hand on his arm, watched her friend. “No, you really didn’t. Upset, she’d have been frigid or molten. She’s thinking, and she’s looking at something she’s refused to look at for a long time.”

Mi turned back to him, positively beamed. “I don’t know what you said or did, but I’m even happier to meet you.” 

Shelter in Place

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By Museumderstille - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45667210

The mind works hard in the moments between the noise.

mother nature network

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“I upset you the night of the party. Your friend said I didn’t, but—”

“Mi’s right, as usual. You didn’t. I was thinking about something, and you made me think harder. I was abrupt, but that’s because I was inside my own head.”

“The SBZ?”

Her lips curved as she shrugged. “Maybe just inside the border.”

Shelter in Place