Journeys Completed...Journeys to Come

   As the year winds down, it is only natural to think about where you have journeyed and where the future may lead.  This is the first year in many that I do not have a "big trip" planned.  My month long journey to Ireland and Scotland last spring is a tough act to follow and I am feeling the need to stay closer to home.

   My inward journey at Little Clemons Pond continues for the first half of 2015.  I will conclude the project on June 28th.  One of my outward journeys will be to visit one of the locations of my family's story, in Dutchess County, NY.  I need to put a face to the places I've been reading about during my genealogical research and discover a better sense of the locations that were so important to my ancestors there.

   With contemplative photography, we can journey through our images, even if they are made in our own backyard or in a stairwell of a museum.  Our images are a road map of our soul and each curve and detour is clearly marked.  We define ourselves each time we make a photograph and they become illustrations in our journal of being.

   I have found that it doesn't really matter where you actually travel to, whether it is to far away places or to someplace right around the corner.  The journey is as much an inward destination as an outward one.  That is really what I want to explore this coming year...the geography of my soul and for that, distance traveled is unimportant.  For in the end, the only journey that truly matters is the journey of self-discovery.

 

Every day is a journey, and

 the journey itself is home.

- Matsuo Basho