As I write this I am 10,000 feet over Florence on the way to Paris. The sun is just rising over the wings of the plane-feeding my growling senses with beauty and awe. 
Paris I’m told wont be easy; I see the airport only, and this for just one hour before re-boarding for the final leg home to the states. It’s been quite a journey.
Just 12 days; so full and so rich. In truth it took just two days to fill to this awe-inspiring capacity. The 10 more were bonus overflow~
There is something in travel with intention-with room left as it must be, for unexpected. The intention helps draw focus, framework, around the experience.
It is the schedule that must be kept. The people who must be connected with. The contracts that must be fulfilled.
Therein, regardless of how full one has packed this ‘intention’ lies unexpected.
Latent. Dormant.
Waiting to sprout once fertilized by checked luggage and seat belts fastened. The journey begins.
I know that, every time, I come away full; yet my hands remain empty~
Thomas Merton
A common thread arises in me each time I begin again. It begins to weave into a tapestry when the ideas are spun: EncaustiCampUS. EncaustiCampInt’l. Moving abroad for two years. A road trip to a new gallery contact. An opportunity taken to meet someone at a destination half way between here and there…
This thread is spun of anticipation, excitement, practical questioning and yes, even doubts.
The tapestry knots and tangles, sometimes needing to be pulled apart and begun again, and sometimes just tugged and tweaked a bit in order to settle into proper place. It becomes a strong, sturdy weaving of parts that shine bright,
are bright, like the sunrise over the wing of this plane.
Some dense and deep, darkly richer for the working of their detangling-
this dark made more satisfying, acceptable, in the adjoining threads interwoven-
Each one better for the whole they become together~
We do not commonly live our life out and full; we do not fill all our pores with our blood; we do not inspire and expire fully and entirely enough….We live but a fraction of our life~
H.D. Thoreau
This is travel with intention.
This is joining in even with questions and doubts.
This is knowing that despite these, trusting and tugging and tweaking will work itself out in the greater masterpiece of the finished story,
and traveling to weave ones own creative journey will likely knot off with the sun glistening off a plane wing, high above a foreign sky, making the whole tapestry pulse with a newness you cannot explain.
To carry it and let it keep you warm, and if lucky others as well, is what this tapestry was created for all along~
Live your life. It is yours.
This is why I EncaustiCamp.
in love.