uhm... 1) This task is awesome. 2) No doubt in my mind who I will do this for. 3) Thank you task for giving me the chance to do this!

But wait, is it cheating that I would do something nice for this mother without the prodding of a task? To be fair, I would not have gone quite so far without the task as an excuse, though something of this nature has crossed my mind before, but I was worried it would seem a bit intense... For praxis sake let's move forward.

Backstory: Last year I made a box out of a candy tin a couple friends brought back for me from their trip to Turkey. I absent mindedly placed a travel itinerary for London in the box with the intention of one day making the trip. A few moths later I found a cheap ticket, emailed friends, booked a flight, and within the blink of an eye was on my way to my beloved Britannia.

A co-worker laughed at me. "You made a desire box," she said. She was a firm believer in The Secret and there was no doubt in her mind I had willed my trip to England into existence. I am more skeptical than that, but I do think good will out brings good will in, and I have kept my box, and continue to update it with hopes, goals, and desires. Not because I believe the box will make them real, but because I find the ritual of thoughtfully, artfully, placing creative representations of my aspirations into this little box keeps them clear in my mind.



Maybe we create our own magic, and perhaps some bits of magic are real. If so, this mother deserves some. So, for her, I am making another box of magic.

The box is a card box my mother gave me for christmas this year. From one mother to another is a good place to start.



An old glass jar of rosemary: Traditionally rosemary is for remembrance (thank you Shakespeare), but for me, it represents resilience and abundance. Where I live the soil is dry and alkaline. What little grows in this type of soil does not usually grow in billowing, tumbling, multitude, especially in the dead of winter - except for the rosemary in our yard. It spills over walls, covering walkways, year round, making comfortable hiding places for the birds, keeping them safe from predators. To me, rosemary is home, and nurturing, and health. This is a glass jar from my mother's kitchen and rosemary from my garden.

An amethyst: My birth stone, and a stone I feel a sort of connection to. At one point last year I bought three small pieces of amethyst while on a walk at lunch. I knew I needed to buy three pieces (I get odd feelings like that sometimes, I'm a pisces, I go with it). If magic exists, even in small ways, this stone represents that possibility for me, that possibility in me, and so it goes in the box. A small bit of geode magic.

A letter: Nope, you don't get to know what it says. That part is for the mother, and the mother alone.

A candle: So that there is always light. Besides, what's magic without a candle? That's like a life without whimsy. Which is utterly absurd.



A bag of lavender: Both as a bit of packaging to keep the items safe in travel and also because the scent is old, and gentle, and helps me sleep at night, and I hope the herb will add to the box the same peace it so amply provides me.


Lid secured with a ribbon to keep things tidy in-route and off we go.
One box of magic mailed to a lovely woman.