The Solace Project #20
OfficialWaje
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Hello Friends, <br/><br/>Happy Father’s Day, to those of you who are fathers or have fathers, which means all of us. I woke up this morning wondering how I could write about <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artworks/4788/lady-sarah-bunbury-sacrificing-to-the-graces">Sir Joshua Reynolds’ portrait of Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces </a> on this day, how does this picture possibly relate to how much I’m missing my own father who died three years ago, how any of us relate to father figures, and what that means anyway. So instead of writing, I took a hike with my rescue lab Sage (@sage_the_hiker) near a lake in Yorktown, New York, and it came to me: it’s about prayer, sacrifice, and belief in higher powers.  <br/><br/>I know, it’s a stretch but hear me out.  My father worked hard, struggled to support a family of five children, eventually found peace in his maturity on a lake in Michigan, a weekend place where he fished, swam, grilled, and loved, but mostly I remember him sitting in a simple chair on the porch in the morning, in his bathrobe with a cup of coffee and he would say “best day ever.”  Every day.  Best day ever.  His life was filled with family and financial struggle, lest any of you picture a man of leisure.  No, he said “best day ever” as a way of making it happen. He set an intention for the day and lived it.  <br/><br/>So how can I possibly connect him to a teenage British flirt, a picture he may or may not have seen at the Art Institute of Chicago, our hometown?  It’s a long shot, but here goes: prayer, sacrifice, longing, and the best of intentions.  <br/><br/>Let’s look: I’m going to Chicago next week and will pay a visit.  In my mind, I’ve already walked across Millennium Park with Lake Michigan at my back, a warm and wonderful path to the museum.  Lady Sarah’s portrait is upstairs in gallery 218, a room filled with eighteenth
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serenaM
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