Championing the makers, artists, and wanderers in all of us.
For my final monthly photo for 2016, here is a photo of the chapel at San Xavier del Bac, Tucson, taken through the fence that separates it from the main part of the Mission. You can see the prayer candles still flickering inside.
Dear Travelcraft Journal community,
What I wish for you – this year and always – is to feel peace in the midst of life’s storms.
I wish for niches in your schedule to be creative, to explore, to experiment, to play.
I wish that whatever life brings you, you’ll be able to find something beautiful there, and that wherever you are, you can take a moment to enjoy the view.
Thanks for being here,
Stephanie
The last time – no, the time before last – we visited San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, one of the towers was shrouded in scaffolding while restoration work was done on the 200-year-old mission.
When we visited just this past week, at the end of a quick trip to Tucson, the restored tower had been unveiled, standing in contrast to its mate that has yet to undergo that process.
On the whole, the Mission has held up remarkably well, considering it welcomes 200,000 visitors every year and is still home to an active congregation.
Weekly masses are open to anyone, and we attended a crowded Easter Sunday service there one year. I love that it’s not just an empty historical building but the center of a vibrant community.
“The Mission was created to serve the needs of the local community here, the village of Wa:k (San Xavier District) on the Tohono O’odham reservation, as it still does today.”
Have you ever tried something based on a recommendation from Travelcraft Journal?
Maybe you made a project or recipe we featured, checked out a new coffee shop, took a road trip, went to an event on the Happenings List, or purchased something from our gift guide.
(Speaking of which, the 2016 travel gift guide is online now!)
I’m looking for feedback on the impact of what we share, so I’d love to hear if there’s anything you’ve made or purchased or anywhere you’ve gone after reading about it here.
So…have you ever tried something we posted about? If not, what are you hoping to learn more about in 2017?
We saw this fabulous weather-beaten tree at Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area in Nevada.
I changed my Twitter cover image to this when the yellow brittlebush flowers I had previously chosen seemed too sunny. It looked wild and windswept, and it somehow fit my mood better.
Another day, I didn’t start out thinking about the tree. I was thinking about how I tend to feel my life needs to conform to a certain pattern, like I’m not valid if I’m not checking off a set of boxes, when – in reality – we are all writing our own stories as we go.
Life is not lined up and orderly. It is organic, unpredictable, wild.
The thoughts found their way into a short poem, and one of the images in my mind as I wrote it was that tree in Nevada.
Not a fence post
but a tree,
rough and irregular,
both warped by
the elements and
strengthened by them.
Each meandering ring,
a storyteller.