This, folks, is my Peanut Gallery. Pistachio the Owl, Little Brown Puppy and Vicki. Who are they and why are they my totems? Well, Connie Caldes did a soul retrieval journey for me a few years ago and said this. I am paraphrasing, but in so many words, I left home— symbolically speaking— at about the age of three to live in the pine woods with a mother owl and her babies. So I ordered this little felt owl from Etsy and since it is green, she became Pistachio. When Connie called my spirit back, she advised me to listen to my inner child so she would stay with me. And I try to do that.

Little Brown Puppy is the dog I bought for Bob when he was first hospitalized and diagnosed with cancer. I bought him from the Cheer Cart and paid the princely sum of $5 for him! Bob melted, his heart bursting wide open. Such a gift! And first he lived on a shelf in the kitchen, and then went into the drawer in the hutch for a while. Sometimes I would take him out at Christmas and display him for a bit. But now he lives with Pistachio and the little felt handmade doll I bought at an art sale. She is my inner child, I suppose. So they reign over my dining table/cum desk and are my muses.

The next picture will show the latest addition to my desk. That would be my Yeti mic which I now call Swami Z. I speak directly into this mic as if it were his heart and he has some sassy things to say. Writing can’t be all serious all the time. The comic relief that Swami Z provides is priceless to me.

So there you have it. Whaddya think?