25.9.: From autumn to island time: in transit, a puzzle of memories, and on photography

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Dorothee Lang
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The previous week was long, intense, and colorful: the week before leaving on a journey. Last Sunday, I drove to the Alb for an autumn walk, and for a larger horizon before diving in the long list of things that waited to be done yet.

„Lucky weather“ I thought while looking at the forecast: there were rainy days upcoming, which brought the right mood to stay at the desk and just keep working and getting things done and organized. Even things I had postponed since weeks.

„Keep on keeping on“ was my mantra for those days. And even though it was tiring, after that week, on Friday, it felt good to arrive at this milestone. I packed my bags while feeling an ease of things done, and not waiting after the island time.

Our flight was Friday afternoon, and at noon I felt: the journey is beginning now: the doorbell rang, and a friend dropped by to say hi. We could sit outside, and the red cat joined us. It was a feeling of: yes, now the tide moves to: Journey. Enjoy. Encounter. Relax.

And then the journey started for real, in a new way: taking the new express airport bus. Walking to the bus stop brought this curved sky moment:

The feeling of being in transit, it also inspired the digital painting / visual that I put together before leaving. As always, when going on a journey (even when it’s just a shorter one), there is this part of me that can’t wait to go. And this other part of me that wants to stay. Same goes for the other end of the journey: a part of me wants to keep travelling, another longs for the comforts of home.
The lines in the visual – like almost all the other lines of the previous ones – are a revisit. This time a special one: i looked for „transit“ notes in my blog, and arrived at a poem that my friend and poet Rose Hunter once wrote, based on lines of my story collection „in transit“. Here’s the whole poem – such a good puzzle of memories:
**
 .
The Perfect  Plan
Rose Hunter
 .
re/ visit  /cycle /turn
all the  spaces those
cubes have  created
like flocks  of ravens
a  concentric wave would
run to the sides without anyone
. 
interrupting  it
the changing of
places, the changing of skies
all that is missing now
you have to pretend you don’t feel how
we can learn lessons then
forget them  again
they are 10 cent a piece
against expectations, this idea
 .
of days of  space this promise
to see and think and think and
see, until  it makes sense –
his breath
at the edge of the ocean
this almost tenderness –
 .
the train doesn’t mind, it moves on
returning me to where I came
from, closing the circle
.
and I want to go
and I want to stay
 .
(the perfect plan, rose hunter)

**

From transit day to first island day: we arrived in the late evening, which felt a bit odd as arrival time. But they still has dinner for us, and it was just lovely to wake up on Saturday, and realize: we are here. At the ocean. With a full week of island time waiting.

Here’s a photo from one of the first ocean walks:

I probably took similar photos during one of the previous stays, but each day here is different. And it’s and  to catch the moments, and post them on instagram – see the flow of images there, my own and the ones of others with similar hashtags.Here’s the link to my  instagram page.

Photography… is also the theme of the book I am reading: „On Photography“ by Susan Sontag. A thought-provoking book. It’s from 1977, but almost reads like written for our time with all the mobile phone photos.

Here’s a quote:

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to  participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability,  mutability.
Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all  photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”

And more quotes from Susan Sontag. 

In contrast to all the thoughts, there was this simple sign that felt like a guide to island time, and to life in General

Live well
Laugh often
Love much

ow, for a late-afternoon barefoot walk along the bay….

 

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