Journey Stick

A journey stick is a traditional and symbolic object. It's used in various cultures as a way to record and commemorate an individual's journey, or experi periods. I use this as a way to pay homage to the enduring spirit of my parents and the generations before them.

Or else my parent's passing was challenging in that they are both very ill and passed away from their illnesses in the end, and it was a challenging process for me. But also one where I would find myself with the experience of being between worlds and without words for it.

This was a new process for me, and I found the journey of the process itself healing and emotional and beautiful.

This artwork and my report from the field, a poem called Still There. I dedicate it to the people who have gone somewhere else to change, to not forgetting.

They were always backyard sticks. Dirt, rocks, trees in their backyard. Always.

There was always mum. Somewhere in the house. Always. Love my guardian angel. There was always dad. Somewhere in the world. Always love my hero and protector. And always in the backyard. The grass, the insects, the flowers, the sticks. Always, always the sticks. Then later. Dad wasn't there. Sadness was there. Then later mum wasn't there. More sadness. There was sadness.

The sticks were still there. The backyards are still there. Not the same backyards. Not the same sticks. Even when I'm not looking at them and I'm still. I can appreciate it. The impermanence to fall in love with the impermanence. To find myself in a dance with them. With it.

Sometimes the sadness is still there. It's not the same sadness. Love is still there. They are all somewhere there. Love will always be there.