Navigation : Jill Berry Blog

There are some words that I believe are mine, I own them. Navigation is one such word. My grandmother wrote books on the sea, and studied navigation as part of her research. When I was little I would look at the maps she had in her study, and the sextant, and feel a familiarity with those tools. Now this word means trekking through the wooded areas and sloshing through the streams to find my way through every day as a mother, an artist and all the other things that I am.

navigation2 I dream often of floating in water, daydream really. The ocean is something I crave and long for constantly since I moved from the coast of California to Colorado. This deep longing is the cause of all my house flooding according to my friend Libby: you get what you ask for. In my spare time I will work on refining my longings to just the sea, or any body of water I can jump into instead of curse as it pours through my house.

Sometimes I know just what I am doing, and where I am going, and those times are invigorating. Most of the time I have to wander a bit, and run into things before I find direction. Lately it has been a great deal of wandering, and trying to identify what I have to say as an artist. Seems I have my fingers in too darn many pies, and I need to hone in on a stronger statement. Am I a bookmaker, an illustrator, a painter, a candlestick maker?

Navigation1

I am a dreamer, and I love this poem.

We are the music makers.

We are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

And sitting by desolate streams;

World-losers and world-forsakers,

On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakers

Of the world forever, it seems.

Arthur O’Shaughnessy

Well, aren’t we? Yes, yes, yes.

Comments

3 Responses to “Navigation”

Diana Trout on December 1st, 2009 9:37 pm

I love o’shaugnessy. Thanks for that poem. and for your thoughts. I’ve always had dreams that I was a fish, swimming underwater through the cold ocean which is quite appropriate for a trout.
Kim Rae Nugent on December 13th, 2009 9:18 pm

What a strong piece! I love it! Navigation “You are headed in the right direction” Congratulations!
Marcy McKenzie on January 20th, 2010 5:22 pm

Love your “houses”!! Marcy