When we travel, our senses are assaulted by an endless stream of new information. Everything is unfamiliar- we stop and gawk at a rack of colourful hats, inhale as we pass an open shop door where bins and barrels of spices entice us with heady aromas, listen to steel drums or the call of a bird we’d never hear at home.
Overwhelmed by so much newness it’s hard to know what to focus on, what to photograph, what to capture in our journals. Try to get it all down (good luck) and you can wind up with a shopping list of monuments and menus that is tedious to wade through.
I’m struggling again with poor internet tonight (I’m on a boat headed for the Bahamas) but this whole conundrum of figuring out what moment in this trip to focus on when everything is vying for my attention reminded me of something Dad painted from our Camino.
Did he marvel at ancient churches and crucieros or stop to take in fabulous expansive landscapes? Yes, sure. But he also took note of the fat bumblebee that rested on the handle of his cane or a slug making its way through some fallen leaves.
He observed, snapped a photo, and when we were next stopped for coffee, out came the sketchbook.
The slug wound up being explored in drawings, this painting (above), and if memory serves me correctly, in a Lino cut print as well.
The slug brings back memories of a hot afternoon when we sat on a stone wall at the side of the path, catching our breath and sipping water. It’s emblematic of the pace of our journey - both symbolically and also practically - we did move slowly enough to be able to notice slugs and bees and spiderwebs.
My challenge tomorrow when we arrive at our destination will be to find a similarly innocuous something and step outside the stimulus stream to focus on that one, small thing and create a memory trigger - like the slug. When I have better internet I’ll add the bee as well…
What’s something small and ordinary you have stopped to take note of - either on your travels or close to home?