The Ever Evolving Journey

Path in the Red River Gorge 2020

The Journey

by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.

 

2021 has been a hard year for many of us.  A year of loss in many ways. For me, the pandemic became more personal when my brother lost his life to Covid-19.  Friendships have been tested, families have had extra burdens to bear as we have had to physically distance from ones we love. Isolation for some has created emotional and mental issues and challenges. Some of us have had to shift from in person to virtual work, forcing us to quickly learn a new way to navigate our careers. Everywhere I look, there has been something to "fix" and the "tug on my ankles" has been unbearable at times. I began to turn to nature to quiet the voices and the ever present needs threatening to pull me under.

 

As John Muir said, "Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul"

 

Little by little, I am starting to pull free from my often self imposed, worries as I realize that many times there is nothing to "fix". Who am I to decide what is right for someone else, to interrupt their journey?  Our lives are a process of continual change and expansion filled with struggle and enlightenment if we are open to it. "Fixing" things for someone else may rob them of their journey and the wisdom that comes from it.  

As I continue my pilgrimages into the woods, creeks and fields , I realize that so much innate wisdom exists in the forces of nature, a sort of primal blueprint. Plugging into the peace and comfort of that certainty has quieted my mind and helped me to hear my own voice.

I painted a bench for an Arts Connect  ( Kate Savage) project a few years ago that sits outside the Carnegie Center at Gratz Park in Lexington, KY.  My bench highlighted a book written by Kentucky artist George Ella Lyon. The book What Forest Knows, celebrates nature and it's evocative, ever changing beauty and the innate wisdom of knowing when to  respond to the changes of the seasons. Only now, am I beginning to truly understand the depth and beauty of this enchanting children's book.

                             

 

As a nature artist, I am sensitive to the  subtle and not so subtle changes of the seasons. As I become more aware of my own voice as a person, I hope to be able to bring that voice into my art via a greater awareness of the manifestations of the innate wisdom I observe in nature.              

                     

 

   

I hope you join me on my journey as I paint and blog and grow as an artist ,                                                     

 Living my artful life, 

Pam

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