Tree at Coole Park, Ireland

I pace upon the battlements and stare
On the foundations of a house, or where
Tree, like a sooty finger, starts from the earth;
And send imagination forth
Under the day’s declining beam, and call
Images and memories
From ruin or from ancient trees,
For I would ask a question of them all.

– William Butler Yeats, The Tower

“Tree, like a sooty finger, starts from the earth.” I recall a perfect moment of quiet and contemplation at Coole Park, Ireland, home of Yeats’ patron, Lady Gregory. A feeling of being one with the earth and those who celebrate it with art and poetry.

– with love for the journey.

Photograph by Lou Ann Granger, September 2010

Lose sight of the shore

“On ne découvre pas de terre nouvelle sans consentir à perdre de vue, d’abord et longtemps, tout rivage” (“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore”)

- Andre Gide, Les faux-monnayeurs [The Counterfeiters] (1925)

A  favorite saying, which re-surfaced for no apparent reason the other day.

– with love for the journey.

Mixed Media Journal page by Lou Ann Granger, March 2011

Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.

– T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Accidental photo alchemy, a hurried photo from a moving bus.  The park in Dominica was full of people on that warm island day.

Best I could do was snap a photo, and try to figure it all out another time.

– with love for the journey.

Photo by Lou Ann Granger, Dominica, April 2008

One of the men told me he thought well of Cairo.  It was interesting.  “Take it from me,” he said, “there’s a lot in seeing places, because you can remember ‘em afterward.”
– Rudyard Kipling

This was a hurried moment in downtown Cairo.  Captured while rushing past many intriguing stores and shops on a quest for some art supplies for the Nile expedition the next day.   Feeling hot and harried, no time to stop and visit, just collecting first impressions on a busy sidewalk.

Yet, buried in the depths of what started as a very ordinary photo, there lie unexpected layers and textures, which are only uncovered afterward on reflection.  Reminding me, once again, that the real journey continues long after I return home.

– with love for the journey.

Photo by Lou Ann Granger, Cairo, Egypt
postprocessing with Topaz Adjust plugin for Photoshop

Uncover what you long for, and you will discover who you are.
- Phil Cousineau, The Art of Pilgimage

I don’t know where the wanderlust comes from, just that it has always been part of me.  I believe it comes from the ancestors, who traveled great distances searching for ‘home’.  I search for my own place in the universe, knowing that the answers are not found in any specific place or sacred site.  Just that there is a need to observe many places in the world from many vantage points, and only then to have a slight glimmer of understanding.  And so I venture forth on yet another journey.

I know beforehand, that it still won’t be enough.  But, I am not satisfied where I am and I am restless.

– with love for the journey

Visual journal page by Lou Ann Granger