LOVING DEEPLY

Don and Rosalinda

 I recently received an email from a fellow cruiser, whose wedding I attended, thanking me for taking photos and sending them a video slide show of it.  He wrote:

"I think one's art is certainly well-developed when one is able to capture the essence, and then to share this essence--of anything--a boat form, a learning process for young students, the story of one's life, or a wedding.  Thank you for being able to share this with us..."

He then added this quote:

"I think one's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes.  I see no reason for painting but that if I have anything to offer it is the emotional contact with the place where I live and the people I love."--Andrew Wyeth

 Wyeth's words about 'emotional contact with the place I live...the people I love..." and Don's observation about one's art being well-developed when essence is captured and able to be shared, resonated within me as to Why, long-after One Candle Schoolhouse's last class ended, I continue to tell the stories.  

It isn't just gratitude for the support that was given.  It is because love this place and these people; I want to show and share that love with others.  

Rosalinda was is/was the mother of Welnar, an OCS deaf student who died tragically in 2007. Don, now 81, provided employment, taught her English, and gave Rosalinda a new life aboard his steel sailboat, SCOTSMAN.  Don is a good man, a Don Quixote, eager to offer help to those who need it most and appreciate the opportunity. 

Thank you, Don, for taking he time to create an email Thank You that went deep into my being.