like rhinoceros
angry and too shortsighted
admired from afar

Spine 1 & 2- Lest we forget how fragile we are

Recently, my life partner was thrown from a horse she was working with. She broke her back- I found her in the pasture, crumpled, face down and not moving. She has struggled back from that lowest point miraculously and will walk again, will do all again.

My thoughts have been infiltrated with the weeks of Doctor chatter about spinal injury, paralysis, trauma, and titanium. The imagery below is a manifestation of this infiltration. The blue vertebrae is "L1'- the one that was shattered. Titanium rods were installed with screws in T12 and T11 as well as L2 and L3.
























As I thought about this piece (watercolor and ink) I remembered that a spine-like image had appeared in my mind's eye once before, long ago. I dug out that drawing, created in 1994. I caught my breath upon closer inspection... the metal plate in the drawing was at L1.
























Whether an early premonition or an eerie coincidence, the imagery has become deeply significant, as have recent events and the miracles that have steadily followed them.