On going back and going on
At the beginning of December, I traveled out to the Denver metro area to visit with my grandparents and some good friends (though not as many as I always would want to see). It was cold and brisk and dry and I both had missed it all and not missed it all (brrrrr).
It struck me particularly hard this trip that I hadn’t been back in nearly 7 years and that, for me, everyone else there is still stuck in 7 years ago but that seven years is a long long time and time doesn’t actually stop for them either. So, it now would be as strange to move back as it was to move here; all one can do is keep going on.
The castles built in memory fall not into ruin
I was also reminded that I miss places nearly as much as I miss people, and I’ve missed the tall mountains by my side as I drive up and down the freeway. I miss the crispness of the air. I miss uncrowded roads (and oh, I miss having enough lanes). I miss the familiarity of the routes I have driven so many times.
Not long after starting what would become the World on Fire Mandala, I started a new design on some of the same principles with a spiky heart surrounded by lotus petals, some wire twisted around itself, all within sharp peaks pointing out.
It wasn’t until I put in the orange fading to dark deep red that I realized I was recreating memories of sunsets in the Rockies, where the shadows fall on the high desert foothills while the peaks are lit up.
You can find it on RedBubble (as is typical) and on Zazzle (which is not).
Follow