Vaccine Odyssey: Where will the journey lead?

My personal journey through the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging in many ways. Since word of this novel virus began circulating, I was asked by my employer to be part of a small team that would monitor the science, consider impacts to the workforce, recommend actions, and communicate important information to employees.  After more than a year, these activities have taken a personal toll on my physical and mental health, and have proven to be an obstacle to my own understanding of the effects the pandemic is having on me in ways that are distinct from the organization that employed me.

Part of my pandemic journey was a decision to retire from my 30 year career in public service.  But leaving has taken a long time because I was asked to continue working part-time for six months past my official retirement date.   It pleases me to have finished my last assignments and to be finally, fully and completely finished with that chapter of my life; I finally have time to think about the personal impacts of the pandemic, of  being vaccinated, and of establishing new routines that do not revolve around the demands of employment.  I have begun a new journey in my life.

What I am finding in these few short weeks of being retired during a pandemic (because the pandemic may be slowing but it is not yet over) is that life seems more complicated instead of being more simple.  What are my priority projects?  Should I go out more? Is it safe to gather with friends?  What about activities outside the safety of our home, and mixing with strangers?  What size crowd is too big or too dangerous?    When do I need to wear a cloth covering over my nose and mouth?  What will fill my days if I no longer have the pandemic and other professional obligations to occupy my time and my thoughts?  What time should I get up in the morning?

My journey is something of a messy endeavor and I find it is rarely easy.  The journey of finding a “new normal” for me means accepting that things will never be the way they were before in so many ways.  It means giving up the sense of community I felt with my work group, and giving up the physical separations that have become familiar and somewhat comfortable in these past 15 months.  It means finding a new focus and meaningful activities to fill my days.

The introduction of vaccines to combat COVID-19 sends us on a journey out of the restrictions that preserved my health during the pandemic, and into a place and routines that are new and unfamiliar.  My personal journey into retirement is similar and simultaneous, yet distinctly different even though is part of the same whole.

Vaccine Odyssey: Where will the journey lead?

Each postcard in this edition of 108 was individually painted using acrylic colors on watercolor paper, printed with an original linoleum block cut, and varnished to protect the surface.  

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Vaccine Odyssey (front, view 1)

Vaccine Odyssey (front, view 2)

Vaccine Odyssey (front, view 3)

Vaccine Odyssey (reverse)

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

Valentine's Day is tricky.  We all want to know someone is remembering us fondly on that day above most others.  Evidence of the remembering lifts one's soul; complex feelings follow if we feel un-remembered.  Memories of feeling un-remembered many long years ago still haunt me, and at the same time inspire me. 

I have for many years made cards and given them to friends and strangers I encounter in person on Valentine's Day.  In recent years, it has become a significant undertaking since people in my work and personal circles have come to know of my practice and have found themselves in my path on February 14.

Making art brings me joy.  Sharing art brings me joy.  At the height of a global pandemic that requires continued social distancing, obstacles to making art are not necessarily significant at the same time the obstacle of sharing art in person is relatively immense.  My answer to the obstacle is mail art.

This year's Valentine's Day art offering is inspired by a poem written by e. e. cummings.  In its verses, the ideas of holding within, going together, admiration, and deep affection are expressed by the author.  The art illustrates a heart held and leaves one to consider what it is to hold, and what it means to be held.  This year in particular, these themes resonate for me as I share Valentine greetings.  I am delighted to include the poem in this post as I mail postcards to some who I will not see on Valentine's Day this year but carry in my heart.

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

BY E. E. CUMMINGS

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Each postcard in this edition of 144 was individually painted using acrylic colors on watercolor paper and varnished to protect the surface.  

Please check out my other posts on this blog and share this blog with your friends.