Secure

Art and visual images are an important part of my soul.  Both learning and understanding are frequently communicated to me in images.  Last thing at night I often look at a couple of images in a book of  art to help settle my heart.  I reflect on those images at night and during the day.

One of my closest friends, Sharon Quirke, is an artist.  Images from her work are deeply ingrained in my heart.  She once did a northern arctic igloo series.  Light emanated through the igloos into the cold white darkness around them.  Those igloos were home.  Later she did a series focusing on the ropes or lines that attached boats to the dock.  Those lines linking us all are there in my soul.  She is now working on a boat series that includes mythical boats, dinghy boats, and boats in a marina.

One boat in particular resonated with my heart.  It was a little character-full tug boat securely moored in a marina in Egmont on the Sunshine Coast here in British Columbia.  Off in the distance are the coastal mountains, towering above Jervis Inlet.  Princess Louisa Inlet where I spent many summers as a mountain guide is just around the corner.  The tug is in the marina.  Somehow, the tug boat's presence there tied up in the marina has helped to settle me in my own present place in the marina of this time.  I am looking forward to my friend's next boats emerging as some of them venture out to sea.  Today though I understand my place to be securely tied in the marina. I am also like the marina itself.  Various boats come to tie up at my wharf.  Some of our family members have ventured out to sea on adventures of their own.  Others are still tied up and resting here at my side, preparing for future journeys.  There are times to be boats at sea, to be boats at mooring, and even to be the marina!  Each has its own secure place and  time.