Begin before the Beginning

Today was pack, pack more, pare out what does not need to come, say goodbye with tears in my eyes and love in my heart, plug in the fancy devices, hit the road, and zoom south to Studio 550 Arts in Manchester, for a heart-instructions mini-book class.  Here's the prototype I made at home before leaving:

The idea behind these little custom-instruction booklets is that people can remind themselves of what they most need to remember.  My prototype turned out to be super-helpful in encountering reality, which said No one signed up for class tonight!  There is no mistake.  Enjoy the cup of tea Katherine-the-painter-of-found-things will make you in a beautiful mug, and a talk with Monica, who has an 11-month-old baby, and a surprise - the ancient prototype of the Inner Beauty Compact, from back before it even existed. 

Pilgrimage - at least this pilgrimage - unfolds firmly in the realm of what is.  Sitting on the couch, I wind up talking with Laura, as she arrives for her bachata class.  She asks what I'm doing.  I show her the compact, & the prototype & she understands immediately.  She tells me her son is an artist who tends to be very critical of himself, and then she tells me about a photograph he made: his friend was writing in light, and somehow the E in LOVE got turned around.  He was crushed.  But his mother said It's perfect: You never know how love will turn out in the end.  Thank you, Laura!  Pilgrimage: you never know how it begins, or where it goes.