Pay Attention!

     I can still hear my dad admonishing me to"Pay attention!" as a kid after I'd done something that obviously demonstrated my mind wasn't where my body was.  The scars on my leg, the broken tooth and cut lip, the smashed bicycle, the gash in my head, and my two broken wrists all testify to the fact that I've not been mentally where my feet are.  

Francis Bacon said that "the job of the artist is to deepen the mystery".  To cause others to look again.  To reflect.  To consider.  Anne Lamott stated that "writing is about learning to pay attention and to communicate what is going on".  I am slowly learning to pay more attention, not only to where my own feet are, but to what is going on under the surface of life. 

An event that I have been paying more attention to lately is the tremendous story of the Lewis and Clark expedition from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River.  The impact and saga of their exploration for the United States is monumental.  I am pouring through their journals along with a number of books by others, some of whom have also retraced their epic trail.  It is creating in me a desire to follow in their footsteps, sketching and painting the land and people along the way, journaling from my  21st century perspective, and putting it altogether in a book.  I am enjoying taking another look at this great historical feat.  We'll see where it all ends up!