"We seek not simply to replicate the journey
but also to create the context in which something
unexpected will happen....Why seek them? Perhaps
not to have stories to tell, but also to make sense
of the stories we already know."
-Andrea Barret
It is time for me to regain a sense of myself. I am preparing to leave Switzerland and the days seem short and inefficient. Seemingly a mess of emotions from fear to excitement of the prospect of being able to focus on the joys of the world after so much distraction. It is so hard to decide what to take. I just want to board the plane and look at the tops of clouds. Drink little cups of coffee and chat with strangers about the potential this flight brings. I await writing in a steno book, stretching canvas, making rock collections and looking for starfish. Reading all night because the book is too perfect, too timely to set down.
My time in Switzerland was strangely disastrous, as if I had to make all of the wrong decisions before I could see right. Many things that I found beautiful here were taken away and I have to see the pattern. The trees that I sketched were taken down, as was the small ivy and stone building that enchanted my street. It was the simple beauty that I sought here, but grew fearful of seeing it lest it be destroyed. It cannot be that I was the only one to see these moments.
So I look ahead trying not to think too much of that which was left behind. I start anew and look within for courage.
1 comment:
the loss of those beautiful things. i'm so glad they were seen and loved by you.
yesterday i walked Lucy past a wall beyond which once lay a beautiful old stone house with wonderful gardens. it was part of a very small village near where i live. it began to fall into disrepair but then about 6yrs ago someone bought it, repaired the house, reclaimed the gardens and started some new planting.
3 years later it was knocked down and they built an out of town shopping centre. last after i'd been sick through the summer, i finally went past again only to discover that the 2 rows of houses on the only street in the village had all been borded up. i'm guessing more shops are coming.
when i looked yesterday what was there, in place of that original lone house, was a huge tin building, no detail, no greenery, but in my memory, i still see the huge trees, the flowering shrubs and the way the sunrise reflected in the windows.
i've been thinking about your journey a lot and only just realised that today is May - hence the need to visit here and see where you are, how you are.
here's to journey's, unexpected converstions, stretching your limbs, stimulating your senses, nurturing your talents. i know that travel fits you well anna. i hope you will be arriving someplace where the simple beauty is less endangered and you can see it safely without feeling it may be destroyed.
Bon voyage creative one xxx
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