Welcome to my blog! I deliberated a lot about what entry I should start with, and I landed on a softer opening. In the future, I want this space to be devoted to ponderings about my process and everything that inspires me. Looking back at old journal entries from my original art blog founded in 2011, I find that some things never change. I’m still on the same journey, drawn to the same types of things. Yet, it can look different and more mature with nuance as seasons change. Whatever the season, it’s always good to go back to old roots and remember. With Christmas approaching, my mind has been on Advent a lot. The words “advent” and “adventure” are closely linked, reminding me of a journal entry I wrote eight years ago at the start of my illustration business. The entry is called “The Importance of Adventuring,” and I figured, what better way to celebrate a new stage of my art-making than to reflect and come full-circle. So, here goes! I hope this resonates with the adventurer inside of you. Enjoy…
St. Augustine once said that the world is a book and that those who do not travel read only a page. This past summer, I felt as though I had embarked upon the second page in a series of tomes. Rebekah, Ruth, and I picked up our backpacks and jumped from plane to train throughout Europe, seeing life from a different vantage point. I teach my art students that the appearance or shape of an object can change, depending on the vantage point one uses. Now that my little adventure is over, I am pleased to find that the globe is still round, yet I feel that I have come to know it better through seeing its different shapes and variations of values.
It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to. – Bilbo Baggins
What is an adventure? I think of the Latin words advenire (to come to) and adventus (on arrival). Christ’s coming into the world (advent) was the taking on of an “adventure” of utmost importance in the sense that it was crucial for the saving of mankind. Still, as the Christian grows and matures, he becomes increasingly aware of his need for continual saving. And so we are still in need of adventures.
Soon after returning from my trip, I decided to reinstate a few basic principles of human hygiene, one of them being to get my hair trimmed. I remember my hairstylist interviewing me on my recent European excursion in-between snips. When I told Daniel about all the places I had gone, he asked, “You’re not one of those hippies who’s trying to find herself, are you?” At first I was confused by the question, then I said, “What do you mean?”
“Well,” he said, “My ex-girlfriend back in high school was a lot like you — always traveling the globe. A few years ago she went to Australia with no set plans, just making it all up as she went along. Turns out, she left her fiancée for this guy that she met over there who was trying to find himself too. They got married and moved to the mountains together.”
“What are they doing now?” I asked.
“That guy left her. He said he was still searching for himself.”
This sad story reminded me of a movie I saw once. In Eat, Pray, Love, Julia Roberts plays a character who is unhappy with the mundane prospects of domestic life with her fiancée, deciding to go to Italy and India in search of experiences that will improve her opinion of the world. She finds herself discovering the power of prayer to an unknown entity and searching for love in several different places. I remember enjoying the movie for its scenery and exotic foods, but that was the extent of my enjoyment. In fact, I found the plot ultimately hopeless, yet I’m sure it was meant to be aimlessly inspiring.
I used to always run into college students whose fascination with being in search of themselves caused them to skirt the issue of the end goal. In fact, it has become unpopular to know where you are going. People nowadays are far more concerned with journeys than they are with pilgrimages.
The Medieval mindset of arriving at the resting place of a sacred relic in order to kiss it before returning to the mundaneness of everyday life has clouded the true beauty in the meaning of a destination, and so it is far more comfortable to be a journeyer.
Mr. Bernard Shaw has put the view in a perfect epigram: ‘The golden rule is that there is no golden rule.’ We are more and more to discuss the details of art, politics, literature. A man’s opinion on all things does not matter. He may turn over and explore a million objects, but he must not find that strange object, the universe; for if he does he will have a religion, and be lost. Everything matters — except everything. – G.K. Chesterton, Heretics
This blog post is not about learning the importance of traveling, but about knowing the importance of traveling well. It’s not about ignoring the destination in order to exalt the journey, but it’s about realizing that the significance of the journey is decided when the destination is kept in plain sight. To enjoy the freedom of living Carpe Deum, because it is a present fruit of the future consummation of Corum Deo. Knowing who you are and where you are going frees you to not merely experience a journey, but to have an adventure.
…but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians. – Exodus 3:22
Sarah Grafton was my ninth grade English teacher. One day, she wrote this phrase on the board:
“…plunder the Egyptians for all their gold.”
She then proceeded to expound. I can’t exactly remember the context or specifics of the lecture that followed, but it must have left its mark on me, because that phrase and its meaning has always stuck with me. It’s an easy thing to enslave yourself to the lie that gold is bad, or to even convince yourself that plundering the mines of the world is a sinful act. This ancient lie convinced Eve that she was limited in the trees she could pick from in the garden, when, in fact, she was promised the abundance of every tree except one. The beauty of grace is that the Christian is given the discernment to see the good from the bad and the freedom to choose the good gifts. To partake in naming the animals with Adam because you are practicing dominion over the garden of the world, not being controlled by it. To experience new lands, foods, museums, people…
The good news of the gospel is that Christ has conquered sin and death, and with them every meaningless and destructive end. Our final destination infuses every word, action, desire, and response with meaning and purpose. There are no completely hopeless situations. The gospel welcomes us to a hopeful realism. We can look life in the face and still be hopeful because of who Christ is and where he is taking us. Everything God has brought into your life has been brought with your destination in view. God is moving you on, even when you think you are stuck… Christian joy is not about avoiding life while dreaming about heaven. It is about taking an utterly honest look at all earthly life through heaven’s lens. There we find real hope… What God has begun in you, he will complete. Your destiny has already been decided. The One who decided it will give you all you need to get there. – Paul David Tripp, How People Change
Last summer, I found myself enjoying not knowing where the journey would take me, because one thing was sure: I had already bought my ticket home. To travel well is be an adventurer, and to be an adventurer, one must be a pilgrim. Life’s pilgrimage can only work its magic if one has already discovered the destination and found that the destination is, in fact, the starting point. The intricacies of the binding are reflected in the pages between, but the pages are only meaningful because they illuminate the very first sentence: In the beginning, God…