It is this blurring of worlds I will miss the most when it comes time to leave my yurt on Salt Spring – an eternal circle I will endeavor to keep living under, no matter where I call home next.
The eternal circle: An illustrated history of yurts
travel sketches
Introducing the Great Affair’s newsletter.
It’s on milestones like today, when I can look back and remember how much leaving London felt like a giant leap into the unknown, that I’m filled with so much gratitude that I’ve been able to keep going.
A watercolor wander to Burgoyne Bay.
How do you describe the momentary beauty of two trumpeter swans or a Great Horned Owl? I’m beginning to realize that you can’t, but you can move through each day with an awareness that invites them.
Introducing the yurt: A watercolor housewarming
The yurt gives me faith, really, that nothing is ever for nothing. That the threads weaving through our lives may disappear for a time – but they could still re-surface again, somewhere farther down the tapestry.
Introducing the Great Affair’s new look…and my new outlook.
Blog makeovers end up meaning much more than we expect. As you work through the new layout, it gives you a chance to dig below the surface, and to reflect on why you started writing it in the first place.
Travel sketch of the month: January edition.
As we kick off 2014, let us leave space in our schedules to wander, to walk for the pure sake of walking, to linger over a second cup of tea. But most importantly, let us never doubt ourselves for doing so.
Decisions are like dominoes, and other lessons
May 2014 be a year of adventure, a year of doing what we love, a year of experiencing things we can’t even begin to fathom right now. That was the final lesson 2013 taught me: Leave room for the unexpected.
Sketching Serbia: Fifteen hours in Belgrade.
Travel is funny like that sometimes, isn’t it? Giving us these oddly scheduled arrivals and strange pockets of time in which to explore a new country; in-between places that will pass through us as quickly as we pass through them.
Sketching Croatia: Chance encounters and island wisdom.
I’m overwhelmed by everything I will never understand about Stan’s story – what it means to lose a parent so soon in your life, what it means to hear enemy tanks encircling your city at night – and by the simple yet poignant wisdom he now shares with me.
Sketching Croatia: Full-circle moment on Iž.
And so it was that I decided to return to Iž, to circle back to who I was the last time I was here. I wanted to sketch the island again – and to honor the crazy journeys that life delights in sending us on. As I sketched, all I could think was: thank you.