“Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.”
True that!
I haven’t yet met a melancholy that couldn’t be eased by an airport.
Especially in the early morning when the sun’s just rising & passengers walk softly, bleary-eyed.
…
Except in Chicago O’Hare. That place is a nightmare.
Long time no write.
It’s been busy here in Liz Land. Work amped up. Play amped up. In a way, me time amped up. But that doesn’t mean I’ve taken the time to write much that is thoughtful, personal, & reflective. Sorry ‘bout that.
Project one: Screen printing. The image attached is of my most recent print. Hand painted espresso with transparent-black ink screen printed over. Tons of positive feedback, & it smells delicious. The show is in 17 days. SEVENTEEN. With only two prints completely finished, I’m starting to feel the pressure.
Project two: Figuring out how social media works. I’m working on my favorite café’s social media presence, & it’s not as easy as tweeting about… oh, I don’t know. Belly buttons or something. So, if anyone has recommendations for books or articles about not being a dumbass on the internet, send them my way.
Project three: I’m working on a story. Not just a two-page practice run, either. An actual story. Working title (because I’m addicted to hashtags) is #Muse. Right now it lives as post-it notes & fragmentary scenes. Notes in margins. A stack of referenced books. My journal entries are littered with #Muse written in red pen. There’s a lot to compile, & it’s too soon to know if the story’s worth writing (or not burning after it’s written). But it feels good to return to fiction.
I’m going on a getaway this Saturday. Taking my books, my laptop, my broken French up to Montreal for café & museum hopping. Hopefully I will spend time wrestling #Muse into some semblance of pattern & plot. But, more importantly, I hope to spend time enjoying the opportunity to step out of myself & into who I might want to be.
“Who you might want to be?” you ask?
My impressions, experiences, & feelings about travel are best summed up by the writer Rolf Potts.
You’re coming to realize that travel anywhere is often a matter of exploring half-understood desires. Sometimes, those desires lead you in new and wonderful directions; other times, you wind up trying to understand just what it was you desired in the first place. And, as often as not, you find yourself playing the role of charlatan as you explore the hazy frontier between where you are, who you are, and who it is you might want to be.
That’s about all I have to impart.
The Key to Patagonia
Last Friday, Patagonia guide Dani Catania spoke at both JDK Design and Maglianero Café. He’s been guiding in Patagonia since he was 18, as well as owning and operating his own company, South People Patagonia. Believe me. His CV is impressive.
He lead us through slide after slide of epic landscapes, dramatic cloudscapes, wicked iceberg-filled waterways, up-close-and-personal wildlife encounters, and the faces of the people he met along the way. By the end, he had at least half the studio pledging to quit their New England lives to embark on a Patagonia adventure.
(It helps that Dani himself exudes a king of confident, earnest, joie de vivre that makes him immediately likeable and trustable.)
Fantastic images aside, (for they did conjure the magical) something Dani said was especially poignant. It had little to do with the inspiring landscape.
To woefully and roughly paraphrase (I take notes quickly, but not that quickly):
“The key – the important thing is the people who we go with. You go on these adventures because they make you feel good. But you meet people along the way. They are good influences, and you try to be a good influence on them.”
It’s the same in Patagonia as in anywhere else. The people you meet along the way have the greatest impact. Maybe the scarcity of other voices in Patagonia simply makes the experience more crisp…
I’m sending some mental love along to the people I’ve met so far on my crazy adventure, and some pre-emptive good vibrations to those I haven’t yet encountered. We’re all stories. I look forward to being a part of yours.
(Photo my own - do not use without my permission.)
(1/1)
