I've been gone for several days, helping my dad move in to his retirement community, leaving a house he and my mother shared for just over 40 years. It's been almost a year since her death and he has done so much, physically, mentally, spiritually. I can't imagine covering this amount of psychic work in so short a period of time.

The last few weeks I've been taking apart literally hundreds of silk men's ties that my mother collected for her quilting dreams. I take them apart, take the stiffening piece out from inside and take off the lining. Sometimes there are these flaps of silk that are sewn on the back of their fronts to keep the smaller thinner parts harnessed while wearing. A particularly pretty one came off the other day and I saved it.

It seemed perfect to hold something, something special and reverent in a way. So I sewed it to the card and kept going, knowing I would find the perfect thing to insert.

I had this feather "corsage" from one of my dad's old hats he used to wear in the 60's when I was kid. I've always loved it. I've kept it up on bulletin boards and shelves on display over the years. It seemed the perfect thing to be shown off in this card. I added some brass beads to the end.

So now here it is being held by one the silk tie straps from my mother's stash. Floating. It seems perfect, her holding him in the sky as he moved this week.

Symbols are all around us. We just have to look.

I'm glad I could reach out and grab these two and make a small piece of work to mark the time, the special time.