We had come to lose the distance, to seek connections between this side of the family tree and our own. Just as we were able to view a star cluster three million light years away, so will we leave the Czech Republic calling strangers family.
I think about how we had planned to visit here earlier in the day, about how my own sketch had set us back a few hours, and can only marvel at this sudden twist of serendipity. What if we’d missed Ivo? What if our paths hadn’t crossed?
As I finish my first sketch of Prague in the dark – of elegant buildings and the cobblestoned way – our waiter brings over a candle and sets it down by my paint box. I’m surprised by how much light it casts across my sketchbook, and moved by his kind gesture.
I’m fascinated by how different the sketches in this Summer’s Sketchbook are. I’ve always loved that about art – how we each draw with our own “voice.” How boring would it be if we all sketched the world exactly the same?
I am all too aware that bad things happen in India, and that just because I was never groped does not mean that it doesn’t happen every day, to local and foreign women alike, but I am also aware of the intense warmth and beauty of the country.
Although i’s hard to believe that six weeks have officially passed since the launch of Beneath the Lantern’s Glow, I still want to take a moment and say thank you to everyone who has ordered it – it’s thrilling to now see the book in your hands!
It has been a summer of discovering new landscapes – the ethereal Shi Shi Beach of Olympic National Park, the desert canyons of Yakima River Valley in central Washington, and now I can add Desolation Wilderness to that list, too.
Carrying me through each step was the gift that Book Passage gave me, and others: assurance that we are on the right path. That every page written, every risk taken, and every dream believed are actually leading somewhere.