36. Decompression Art

April 4, 2007

So I've been back for a week now....and how have I been? Contemplative. Well, I spent the first day simply hugging everything. (My parents, my cat, my clothing options beyond the only 8 outfits I wore for the past 3 months...) I'm cold, and my lips are endlessly dry. I make happy sounds when I eat cereal. I feel so incredibly lucky to have this life of mine and so much compassion for everyione that's a part of it. Sheer exhaustion hit me Sunday, when I slept for 15 hours. I feel guilty flushing the toilet when I see how much water is sitting there in the bowl. I'm overwhelmed by coming back into the "reality" of my life. I'm scared of what's coming next. Ghana seems worlds away. I feel worlds away. It's just all surreal, simply surreal. Like my life is a Magritte painting. Life here in America is just so...easy.

Anyway, so this first drawing here is an abstracted view from the plane on my flight from JFK to Dulles. Talk about an interesting welcome back into our land of abundance: looking down over all the magically lit up towns and freeways and harbors...I was just glued to the window. They strings of lights looked like these dewy cobwebs...

This next drawing is about my last day in Ghana when I experienced my first REAL rainstorm that marked the beginning of the rainy season. I learned an important lesson that day: lock your windows. (Noah would have felt at home on my room) The rain fell in these heavy slanted sheets, and the air had this dusty-plum tinge to it...

Whenever I know I'm leaving a place (or even parting from a person/ job for that matter) I find it interesting how we feel this swell of nostalgia. Where you just want to take in everyting that you can, soak up as much as possible, even perhaps overlook things that used to bother you. I felt that way when leaving Ghana--this sudden urgent desire to take as much of it mentally with me. (The background of the drawing here is actually made of maps from where I grew up here in Northern Virginia, and the map going into the suitcase there is Africa)