Nevada

The border between Utah and Nevada wins for greatest contrast between states. As salty and conservative Utah gives way to Nevada's anything goes, I'm reminded of how a rubber band pulled too tight will snap in the opposite direction. As my trip comes to an end and I close my tiny treasure chest filled with things I longed to be, I wonder, do longings once attended to disappear?

Not exactly.

Most of the longings got longer. I would now love a whole summer in Maine, three months in Oaxaca, and a year at Studio Incamminati! Although it does seem to be human nature to want more and more and more, I definitely feel a deep shift from having attended to those longings on a small scale. As I look back and scroll from post to post, mile after mile, I am in awe. I did it! I really did it.


"The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel," is what the Tibetan Buddhists call the awakened mind. They  believe it is our minds that hold the remedy for all imaginable desires. And what Fatima could once only see as shards of her broken lives turned out to be pieces of the puzzle that led to her ultimate happiness.

Writing next to blue glass and shells in the window of Saint Mary's in Maine, gold flip flops on asphalt as I waited for the trolley to take me to the estate of Nelson Shanks, wandering days with charcoal and a sketchbook in New York City, time with the library, lake and family in Vermont, a ride on La Divina Concepcion deep into the heart of Santa Catarina Juquila. Attended-to-longings that, instead of disappearing, became like seeds, planted and watered. There's no way I can tell how they will grow, but I can absolutely feel that they are growing.

Great things come from a series of small things put together.   -Vincent van Gogh