It's amazing

that this applies in so many different situations. Thanks to Ryan Woodward for sharing this inspired piece of work.

Meanwhile, a floating missionary!

This is the illustration for a birthday letter I just composed. I was rather pleased with how it turned out (at least, the missionary part), especially considering I had very limited reference. It's hard to get someone to pose in the air like that for very long.

The Road Not Taken

He came upon me suddenly, and we both paused
that morning in the yellow wood. Perplexed, he faltered
between me and the other road he'd been traveling.
(Until that moment, I didn't even know we converged, she and I.)

For a heartbeat in eternity, he leaned into me—
watching dust motes swim in the sunlight,
hearing birdsong flutter among my branches,
even putting one foot forward on my rustling, leafy pavement—
then he drew back. I could hardly blame him;
I didn't know where I would lead him
any better than he—it's different with every traveler.

Yet I wanted so to see where we might go together;
my grasses would bloom beneath his gentle step.
But a path cannot draw any traveler on
against his will. I could only beckon
with birdsong and sunlight dancing with shadow
while he swayed at our convergence.

The yellow leaves trembled. A single maple wing
spiraled to the ground as he sighed
and started again down the other path.

And still I ache with the absence
of his gentle tread. My grasses may wilt with wondering,
If he had chosen differently—? but, no.

Two roads converged in a wood, she and I,
And he took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

EYN August 2011

First off

coming up with a title for this blog was rather difficult.

I wasn't sure who-all would actually know about and view it, and I worried about the various meanings that various people might read into it. However, there wasn't really much I could do about that.

I could control what meanings I read into it, though, and that made me even more uncomfortable. After all, creating this blog was sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing, sort of like getting a tattoo on little sleep and/or in an emotional crisis. What if I chose a title that held deep symbolic significance to me now, only to forget why it mattered a few weeks later? To avoid that, I could always choose something facetious, but that would merely be embarrassing right away.

In the end, I realized that there was really no way of predicting my schema of personal symbols in the future, so I would have to pick something that reflected me right now. Yay being forced to live in the moment. I chose a title that is hopefully solid enough for me and nebulous enough for my readers to keep the nature of this blog flexible (going back to the tattoo analogy: if no one can tell what it is to begin with, it won't look as bad when I start wrinkling and the image gets all warped and saggy).

So, get ready for a piecemeal construct that is a representation of my mind. Perhaps something beautiful will come of it.