The joy of giving

A month or so ago a little girl, Anjyu, who lives on the first floor of our building was visiting with her mother. She was very interested in some of my pictures that we have hanging in the living room. Because of this, Masayo got out some of my pictures that are put away in boxes - hopefully, I will start selling them next year. Anyway, Anjyu saw a picture of a tree that I had drawn and very quietly said that she would like to have it. I said that I would think about making her a special one.

The original picture was a single round tree with flowers and individually drawn leaves, based on a photo from Europe. I had placed a birdhouse on the trunk and put my name and the date over the door.

When I thought about a picture for Anjyu, I realized that her younger brother had been there, too, so I decided to make a picture with two trees and a clothes line between them. On the clothes line there would be shirts with the names of the two children, Anjyu and Shui. I added a sign post with my name and the date to complete the picture.

Last night Anjyu and her mother came to our apartment to get the picture. After I gave the picture to her, she just stood and stared at it. Her mother put it away in the box that came with the frame, and Anjyu calmly opened it again so she could continue staring.

However, I think that I got more out of the act of creating the picture and giving it to her than she did from receiving it. It felt incredibly good!

This is a photo of the picture.