Summer Sojourning
Summer is here, a time of minimal online interaction because so much is calling me elsewhere. It is a time of external growth in the garden and internal slowing down long enough to allow new ideas to steer my direction. I have joined Cigdem Kobu’s Summer Sojourn, Slow Down and Get Spacious, a 21-day virtual retreat that guides you to slow down, feel grounded and recharge. Based on benefits from her programs, like the Winter Joy Retreat and as member of Progress Lounge, I look forward to allowing creativity to percolate in expanded ways.
Towards the end of spring I felt so spent. May is always a favorite month of falling in love with nature again and also one of full time in the gardens, not much time for art making of the other sort. This year it was also a time of making everything cozy for our house sitters for our car trek across mid America to visit family in Colorado until mid June.
We chose to drive for two reasons. One, so we could take in some history on the way: Cahokia Mounds (wow),
Monks Mound at Cahokia Mounds complex, rising 100′ covering an area of 14 acres
following the Great Rivers Road (flooding) and crossing the Mississippi in Hannibal, Missouri to absorb some Twain,
Tom Sawyer’s Fence, Hannibal MO
crossing the Great Plains on the Pony Express (Hwy 36) and the Cherry Creek Encampment of the Cheyenne Survivors of the Sand Creek Massacre near St. Francis, Kansas.
Cherry Creek Encampment of Survivors of Sand Creek Massacre, looking north, with panel of all the names of the Cheyenne & Arapahoe survivors who found refuge on the flat plain beyond for 1 year
Two, we drove so we could pack the car with art to share with the kids. Some of the art was large, framed with glass, which I dislike packing and shipping in the mail. Some was tiny, like the Metamorphosis series my daughter requested ages ago. They are each 3 x 4″ in frames my dad made. They are oil paintings from 1983, and I think what lead me to abandon this tiny brush style that contributed to carpal tunnel syndrome. I took a similar Summer Sojourn at that time and began a new style of larger skyscapes. It always amazes me how a chance to slow down and rejuvenate allows the next phase of our expression to evolve.
“Metamorphosis 1”, oil by Kathleen O’Brien, 1983
“Metamorphosis 2”, oil by Kathleen O’Brien, 1983
“Metamorphosis 3”, oil by Kathleen O’Brien, 1983
That retreat sounds lovely! What a great driving trip-we are driving to MT in late July, and have several interesting stops planned along the way…
what is your route, and your stops, Laura? I can imagine many choices on the more northern vistas. Have a grand adventure. Let me know if you join the retreat, it could play in well with your journey…
We are going through Wisconsin , Minnesota, and South Dakota-stops we have planned so far are the Aldo Leopold Foundation and his shack, De Smet SD (for the Laura Ingalls sites), and my boys insist we go to Mt Rushmore! I want to check into later retreats, I’m pretty full up right now-we are trying to finish the house we are building before taking our vacation! Look forward to having that big creative project behind me so I can get back to my other work!
That sounds like a grand adventure. I loved the Little House books as a child, I can picture the land in my imagination. Mt Rushmore should be awesome. Will you see the Crazy Horse Monument as well? It is a righteous plan to finish your house, one that will make your trek all the more rewarding, I would guess. Building a house is like giving birth, how amazing.