Bridges, Doors, and Opportunity
Photo by Colleen Cummins. Besalú, Catalonia España
Last trip of 2024 through parts of Scotland, Spain, and France has been a trip with many twists and turns. Very few of them planned. Traveling this way is truly a metaphor for life. Doors are held open for a moment in time, and the ease with which one can walk through that door can deceive one into thinking “it can’t be this easy,” and yet...it can.
But if one doesn’t walk through, the door closes.
Photo by Colleen Cummins. Besalú, Catalonia Spain
There are others that will open, but usually not that same one again.
And then there’s the struggle to put together pieces in a way one thinks would be best. If the struggle is too great, I have found, that often the open door goes unnoticed. Instead we beat our heads as if trying to make an opening in one of the many medieval walls I’ve seen and walked on throughout Scotland, Spain, and France.
Eventually the wall crumbles or falls, but it does so at a cost.
Photo by Colleen Cummins. Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness, Drumnadrochit, Scotland
In these travels, I’ve been from the Lochs of Inverness Scotland, to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain/España, to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I’ve experienced the home, studio and theater/museum of Salvador Dalí in Figueres and Portlligat Spain, truly an experience I’d recommend! The peaceful and idyllic vineyards of the heart of Burgandy/Bourgogne France.
I’ve been "re-directed,” or at the time it felt like being “kicked out” by “the universe,” from what should’ve been a restful farm-stay between Besalú and Olot in Catalonia Spain, only to find myself, "by chance" in one of the treasures of the most eastern edge of the Pyrenees, Céret France. Here, in this small unique village, I hung out where Pablo Picasso and his cronies hung out, a place still vibrant with creativity, liveliness, generosity, and beauty.
Photo by Colleen Cummins, Céret FR
So... I’m learning to breath, look up, and be brave enough to walk through the “ease-full” doorway, to be greeted with awe, comfort, fortuitous meetings, and “lucky” encounters with both humans and nature.
Photo by Colleen Cummins. Plage des Pins, Argelès-sur-Mer, FR
Photo by Colleen Cummins. Culloden Battle Field, Inverness, Scotland