I fell in love with the Finger Lakes! My plan was to stay one night which turned into two and continued into three. The Finger Lakes are located in Upstate New York, the landscape is soft rolling farmland with beautiful barns with many farms having their own little veggie stand on the road, paid on the honor system. The Finger Lakes region is a central part of the Iroquois homeland. The Iroquois tribes include the Seneca and Cayuga nations, which two of the lakes are names after, the lakes I visited. I'd visited Ithaca once before but it was winter. This time I was able to explore several gorge trails that just captivated me - the rocks, the colors, the flowing water and the way the light traveling through the trees and reflected and danced on the water. It was succession of moments of awe hiking the trails. There were several places this journey I felt my heart expanding and Ithaca was one of them.
My very last night of camping was in the Catskill Mountains on a small lake. The mountains were covered with the changing colors of fall, already! I had mixed feelings of savoring the peaceful comfort I had found on the road - the rhythm of setting up my tent everyday and waking up to drink coffee outside, just being outside so much of the day felt like home to me. But I was also feeling ready to reunite with dear ones and start this next adventure back in New England.
This last update took me longer to write than expected. I've been back in the city a week, time seems to fly by in the city. It feels so dense and busy here, I'm readjusting to New England but there's a part of me that now knows I don't want to fully readjust to the life I had here before. I need time to absorb nature and moments of silence to authentically connected to myself - to hear myself. I found a beautiful little place in a small coastal town just a little north of Boston to spend the next few months and I marinate all the places + colors + experiences of this nomadic residency and preparing for jewelry workshops in Somerville and the holiday shows that will quickly come.
Thank you thank you to everyone reading this for your love + support. I hope you have in someway connected with yourself thru this journey. I will continue to share this experience with you all as I process it with time and the jewelry that will slowly evolve from it.
Much Love,
AEO
