“Free” – pastels on paper

Illustration Friday‘s topic this week is F R E E…

We went on an adventure this weekend. Packed one bag, left Charlie at the kennels, and headed east to Sydney. Wind blowing in our hair.

We stayed with our beautiful friends Gaby and Sonya, as well as meeting up with a few of the Sydney Succulent Wild Women tribe. It was delight. Sheer delight. Staying in a gorgeously old house with plaster ceilings. Strolling down the warm streets to eat noodles for dinner. Eating far too much mushroom pate and my favourite hommus. Exploring the largest cemetary in the Southern Hemisphere and collecting buttercups. Going to the Mind Body Spirit festival, and meeting the amazing Toni Carmine Salerno {oracle card artist extraordinaire}. Laughing until our cheekbones ached. Catching the train into the city and wandering for hours, faces turned to the sky and the skyscrapers. Getting glued to Gaby’s couch. The fantastic buddhist & joss paper trading company, filled with chinese delights. Sleeping on an air mattress – it’s like camping, but without the insect repellant. Chris eating fish guts sushi. Visiting Adyar bookstore. Sitting around the table playing with pastels {see above picture} and making up adventures to do next time.

If I take it down to its purest form, we:
adventured :: laughed greatly :: ate muchly

As we drove back this morning, I began reading the miraculous “Be Here Now” by Ram Dass.
And I realised that the weekend was so GOOD was because I stopped thinking. Just started being in the moment. All the thoughts that have been rolling over and over and over in my mind lately had been like ceaseless waves crashing upon the shore. On the weekend I jumped off the mousewheel. I got to have a holiday from my own brain.

I laughed more, ate more and saw more,
and for once I wasn’t analysing where I was at, what I was seeing, how others saw me when I laughed {ugh. the list goes on}.
I got to reside precisely where it was all happening: in the moment.

And damn, that is the most free I have felt in a long time.

Be.Here.Now.