nine

How wild it is to even type that huge number in as a title.  Nine.  Tomorrow my girl turns nine.  Nine!  I think about the years that I've covered in this sacred space.  How I needed my words and photos to hold on to it all, to make sense of something so sensational, so foreign, so tremendous. 

Now she's huge.  She's strong and confident and kind.  She's adventurous and empathetic and bikes down the hill to the market on her own.  She is a believer, a feeler, an artist -- ever the Cancer, wild water spirit.  Today she wanted to make fairy houses in the forest with her two closest friends.  They gathered moss and stones, leaves and bark, creating careful arrangements.  For her real birthday she wants a family day with her auntie and uncle from out of town, with the farmer's market and some time outside.  Oh, and the mall.  With the ear piercing at the mall.  Alas.  We've surrendered to studs.