Lake Como, Italy
The Story: The Mountains Called Time
It all began with a sheet of cotton paper meant for drawing.
Stretched across the face of my smooth white rental-apartment refrigerator was a scribbled list of reasons to feel grateful. Things from light, air, and gravity, to good food, deep connections, elements of self-awareness, and a roof over my head, filled this make-shift paper canvas. It served as a daily reminder of all that was still good in the world. The goal was to add three items per day, until eventually this ordinary appliance became more than a just receptacle for storage - it was a tether to life and hope.
Fast forward 17 or so years, and I was reminded of the need to start a new sheet. As a pattern's purpose is to repeat itself, there are moments in life that leave us shell-shocked by the repetition of lessons left unlearned. A lack of healthy self-compassion, the company one keeps, or the need to be the home we seek in others. All are lessons that must be learned before the pattern can effect change.
“There was nothing to talk about anymore. The only thing to do was go.”
And while I was overcome by the sense of peace and natural beauty that covered Lake Como, I couldn’t ignore the nagging suspicion that all was not well. And so began a new list, a digital space where among my reasons for gratitude, the identification and isolation of patterns could surface, blend, and linger. Slowly and ever so gently, as the mist rolled its way around the mountains and hovered with intention over the grand and mysterious lake, I realized that time in this lovely country had gifted me much more than the typical rest and relaxation of your standard holiday. Our time in Italy paraded before us a future so bright and different that we could almost touch it. There it was, shimmering and glimmering, just beyond the fog. Now all that was left was to reach out...
“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. ”
“This benefit of seeing... can come only if you pause a while, extricate yourself from the maddening mob of quick impressions ceaselessly battering our lives, and look thoughtfully at a quiet image... the viewer must be willing to pause, to look again, to meditate. ”
“I carry my landscapes around with me.”
“Beauty is not the purpose of creation, it is its reward. Its appearance, often late in the day, is no more than an indication that the disrupted equilibrium between man and nature has once again been restored by art.”