Celebrating Molly

Bethanne Elion has issued a challenge for people to celebrate Molly Jean Murray Threipland, aka Amalarian, whose Blip Journal, Tuscany, ended May 7, 2011. Bethanne's idea was that we should post a celebration of Molly on May 7, 2012. The challenge has haunted and worried me, as I felt it wasn't likely I would be able to find anything I considered appropriate and worthy of Molly exactly on May 7.

However today I spent the afternoon with friends at the local ceramics show, where I saw this little frog on a vase, and it vividly reminded me of my favorite blip of Molly's, the one she posted on May 3, 2011, four days before her last one, seven days before her death. I knew this had to be my Molly blip. As of this posting, Molly's frogs have been viewed 4,196 times, so clearly I am not the only person who loves them. Molly's frogs are lively and tender, fragile and beautiful, funny and bizarre. I love their colors, textures, and shiny wet eyes. They, and Molly's journal, remind me of our own impermanence and silly wonder, remind me that we are all bizarre and unlikely, each in our own ways; that we are damn lucky to be on this earth at all; and that our days are numbered.