The Solace Project #9

Art and Nature change my mind

Hello Friends, and happy Easter Sunday if you celebrate it.

I’m spending time with family this weekend, visiting my hometown of Chicago, watching the last vestiges of a winter thaw away into magnificent forsythia, daffodils, crocus, tulips. And ice-free Lake Michigan, where our dog, Sage, likes to play on the beach. I had sand between my toes yesterday, chilly sand, but just the same it was sand, so welcome as a sign of transition of seasons and moods. I felt a wave of relative normal, while Sage jumped in the waves, that comes from being in nature, seeing and feeling the pure beauty in elements that are there for us no matter what else is happening in the world.  Solace at Wilson Beach Park, who would’ve thought.  

Already feeling solace from the sand, I returned to my mother’s house and she gave me an early birthday present.  A few days ago, she dropped the hint, saying, remember those paintings of mine that made you smile? She has hundreds of paintings that make me smile. You know, the rabbit hitchhiking on a station wagon and a duck in an orange pick-up truck?  My sister was in on this conversation too, and we glanced at each other with that look that says whose family talks like this?  The one with the mother who paints rabbits and ducks in vehicles.  

And because we couldn’t remember which one I liked better, she gave them both to me.  I like them both, very much.

Take a Walk

I’ll walk near home on Monday, stretching my legs and my brain after today’s all day drive home, 12 hours on route 80 through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, a sliver of New Jersey, and New York.  Short walks at my favorite rest stops in PA, that oh-so-long-state with the nice grassy areas for quick walks in the woods and a vending machine pack of red liquorice.  

And onward

Promised last week, worth offering again, love and nurturing in the shape of a potted fuchsia from Charles Cromwell Ingham.  More on this picture next week.

Until then, keep walking and looking, slowly and with curiosity and courage,

Warmly,

Carrie