Today for my sister's birthday I gave her an embroidered simplified Buddhist Mandala. She's always drawing very detailed ones in her sketchbook. As I was hastily wrapping it in a sheet of notebook paper I thought for a second that it could be bad luck, giving her a permanent mandala when they are normally made of sand and meant to be destroyed, to signify impermanence, but then I dismissed it. I've seen mandalas made of different materials. I also can't be home for most of the year, so this is a small reminder of my lasting well-wishing for her. She turned 10 today.

Lately I've been finding some of my old sketchbooks, half finished, with her additions to them. She's going to surpass me in artistic skill. I can already see that.