Abbondanza

My auntie turns ninety-five in a couple weeks. Her favorite word is ABBONDANZA, Italian for abundance. 

She has asked me (more than once) not to spend money on presents for her. I will make her something instead. 

Meanwhile, she told me she has ordered a big box of fancy, mixed chocolates from a candy maker in her neighborhood, for me and my coworkers.

Maybe I will calligraph this as a birthday card--the generous sower is very her:

"Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."
--2 Corinthians 9.6

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Along the lines of giving freely...
Talking about watery things with Sarah of Circles of Rain, I came across this Bosch painting I'd never noticed before: "St Christopher Carrying the Christ Child".
www.boijmans.nl/en/collection/artworks/101481/saint-christopher-carrying-the-christ-child

Curious background details, like a little dog drinking water, lower right.

According to the 13th-century Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) of Jacobus de Voragine, which tells the lives of the saints, Christopher was a giant named Reprobus (Latin for ‘rejected’) who helped people across a dangerous river.

One day, a small child asked to be carried across. As Reprobus carried the child on his back across the river, his burden became heavier and heavier.

On the other side, the child said,  "Indeed you have been carrying the whole world on your shoulders, for I am Jesus Christ".

Reprobus took the name Christopher, ‘bearer of Christ’.

His attributes are a tree (usually used as a staff, sprouting fresh leaves), a branch, a spear, a shield, and he may be shown as a man with a dog’s head.
--via

A dog's head! "Understanding The Dog-Headed Icon of St-Christopher", Orthodox Arts Journal