There is a small white hair in my brush box, and it has been there for years, and I have never once tried to remove it. My cat, who died in 2019, sat on the desk beside me while I painted for eleven years. She was not a careful creature. I lost more than one wash to her tail. The hair is the only thing of hers I have kept in the studio, and I am not sentimental about it in any way I could defend to a visitor. It is simply in the box, next to the 000 sable I use for stamens.

I mention it because I spent the morning doing what I always do before starting a plate, which is nothing. I sit down, I look at the specimen, I look at the paper, and I do not touch anything for a little while. It is not meditation. It is closer to checking the instrument. The hair is part of that now. I notice it and then I begin.

I am curious how common this is. Not the dead cat specifically, but the small pointless object that has become part of the working ritual without ever being chosen. I suspect most of us have one and have never once written it down.