It is my second summer in Portugal and I am more in love with it each passing day.
Each new day feels more beautiful than the last and I continue to visually document all of it. I’m not going to lie, I am loving the story unfolding. I am fatigued in all the best ways.
Water and walking in this world continue to take centre stage in my life during this season and it has helped me connect to my new landscape and the interior landscape of my heart and mind too. Not only have I discovered beautiful spaces but I have got to see the lay of the land more intentionally. It has given me long hours to be quiet with myself and to be in nature each day which has been so healing.
It might appear that I am on a perpetual holiday but I promise, I am working very hard. I guess just in a different scheduled way. I worked flat out pre-Artshow and post-Artshow and I have also had so much administrative work. It has felt wonderful having a full work schedule again. In amongst the work intensity and artshow anxiety, I still managed to make time for all the things that I love doing… walking, swimming, yoga-ing and travelling, just with my laptop tucked under my arm. With the sun rising so early and setting so late, it means I am getting to max out my days and maxed out, I am.
I still can’t believe I got to swim in Lake Geneva so many times with my beautiful girl, in an impromptu visit to Switzerland and got to see my long time art friend, at the same time. I also got to meet up with friends from across the world in Orvieto and Florence and I still have some trips coming up in the next couple of months. I will be meeting with my Sensei to move with the Swimming Dragon soon and have an art class planned, in a part of the world where I will get to speak my second language.
In a couple of months I also head back to school to start my journey into learning my 3rd language… Portuguese - wish me luck. And of course my studio awaits, I took 6 weeks off to regroup and recover, after my show and to face summer head on but the quiet whispers are beckoning me back in and I have started to dabble again but this next season in studio will not be about working towards a show just yet but it’s for me, to spaciously play.
So from my heart to yours, always, with so much Love, Jm
