For the one who whispers the prayers.

A client once came to me wanting a scarf for a dear friend, a woman who had been through a great deal and had come through it. Every year the two of them celebrate the day, and this year my client wanted to give her something that said what she saw in her: a life worth celebrating.

So I painted two trees. In the branches and roots of one I hid the people and pets she loved, and in the other I hid the words strength, life, love, and joy, small enough that she would have to look for them. I wrote her a note by hand on the back, and afterward I sent a key so she could find every one. My client wrote to tell me her friend filled with tears, could not believe how much work had gone into it, and wore it home that night. Her husband found some of the hidden names without the key.