1000 pieces of my heart:  week 2

“The woods were made for the hunter of dreams.”

Sam Walter Foss

{10 – 20}  A visit, a walk in the woods, some pressed leaves, brown paper journals, and a Secret Garden.

This week has been quiet, but a couple of weeks ago, was full of people and visits w people.  Rands and I were in Washington, D.C. with a new squad of World Racers.  Mostly there were meetings and quick meals in between meetings, but there were also some wonderful moments with friends and racers, old & new, tucked in between the information exchange.  It was exciting and humbling to be with these world changers as they left for their 11 month journey.

D Squad praying for N Squad

I stayed in town and spent a delightful couple of days talking about books and telling stories with my Candi-friend.  Hard to believe that we’ve known each other since we were teenagers at Belmont College-now-University.    A favorite moment was going on a foggy, crisp explore in the woods with Candi; her daughter, Cami; and their terrier, Roscoe.

The day turned up some studies in brown and we were in the woods much longer than it seemed that we were.   It was one of those feels-like-20-minutes-but-it’s-really-been-an-hour sort of treks.  I love when time falls away because you’re soaking in exactly where you are.  We stopped to peek at dead-tree-woodpecker-houses and weird mushrooms and told stories and walked in silence.  All in all, just the way, a slow explore should go.

And, although I didn’t play tourist and go to any museums or monuments this go ’round, I did receive a tour of Cami’s bookshelf, her Hobbit Legos and her beautiful bottom-drawer nature collection.  It felt like a tour of her heart.

{Pressed leaves shared from Cami’s collection}

And, I revisited my November and December journals. There is so much to be gleaned from a good journal retrospective.  I was wrestling with perfectionism and a bout with the flu during the holiday season and handmade, grocery bag journals with their sweet, humble brown paper were a great way to diffuse the pressure.  I especially love white pen on brown paper.

Lastly, I started a new journal on January 1.   It’s an altered copy of The Secret Garden, which is a shift away from the larger scale that I used for most of 2012.  But, I like it for it’s wonderful phrases and portability.  Still, I miss 9×12 and watercolour paper, so we’ll see what comes next.

As always, we’ll see what comes next.