A Wanderer’s Journey, Sensing the Heart, in Memory—From Afar
In a bitterly cold subway channel, during a time when the ice was hanging stalactitic from the ceiling girders of the NYC Metro—and wind whipped so cold up the railed canyons of the running lines that eyes teared in the sheer intensity of the frost—and there, I saw this tiny heart.
It was so diminutive, placed there on the rail line, that it was quiet as litter.
But surely there it was: a heart.
I was working in NYC on a wintry brand mission, workshopping brand storytelling, visualizations and soul. And I was thinking of that—the remote and distant love, being on the road, far from that one, the closest friend, that still in recollection brings the quiet simmering of contemplation—memory served and cherished.
I’m not big on the notion of “Valentines”—and the Hallmark brand of the day—but I am large on the symbolism of the ancient heart, that drawing which even might be found as a scratched missive in the graffito of antiquated Rome; or, as below, 12th century BC, ancient Egypt, XIXth dynasty.
Weighing of the Heart (Anubis Details), 19th Dynasty Egypt, via The British Museum, London
and still further back in time—Paleolithic heart drawings.
I think about the making of the heart, two fingers, drawing at the same time, that form that symmetry of the fullness of being (in love)—which can be passion, which can be affection, which can be madness, which can be made.
But the heart is true, whether it lies in the love of the work, the practice of being, the craft of making, or the celebration of connection to another being—or the spirit that lies within.
A heart is a heart, spirited forever, each: unforgettable.
Traveling again, I see yet again, even another heart, drawn on a pillar—a plush red, brush-drawn and scumbled graffiti, at Spokane railway underpass.
Love to each
and everyone.
Tim
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