You move someplace new. How do you make yourself feel at home? What does it take to get used to a
location that is different in many ways to the home you left behind? If you work, you meet new people right away, and they will point out their favorites stores, theaters, restaurants, activities. You work with new people, you adjust.
You’ll notice the differences first. The things that are the same don’t stand out, but the differences do. So when I landed in a place 2,500 miles from my starting location, I had the same experience, but through the eyes of an artist. One of the first things I did was buy a handful of different colored pencils–I had plenty of greens from the East Coast landscape, but I needed purples, grays, tans, and yellows for the desert.
Looking around, I noticed that the trees were different. A lot different. Most of them didn’t have big leaves, there was one that had a green trunk and no leaves. I discovered it was the Palo Verde, a tree that sheds its leaves in summer to protect itself from the heat. The green trunk does the work of photosynthesis.
What fascinated me was the seed pods. Trees in a searing climate protect their seeds in hard-cased pods
that twist open in the rain, or look delicious to birds, who carry the seeds away and plant them with a dollop of fertilizer. I’d gather up seed pods during walks, put them on the drawing table, only to discover that the next morning, they had twisted open enough to shoot seeds across the room. Some of them have thorns to hitch a ride. I discovered those as I walked barefoot across the carpet. Others have sails on them to carry them on the wind.
The desert is an amazing place of great beauty and amazing variety. If you visit it, bring a camera. It changes every day, and everything is worth photographing.
–Images: color pencil on 100-lb Bristol board by Quinn McDonald
–Quinn McDonald is an artist who is endlessly fascinated at how plants, animals and people adjust to their environments. She is a certified creativity coach and a life coach specializing in transitions. See more at QuinnCreative.com
First things to adjust to were different climate, new language, other food, finding my way in a new city, other smells and noises.
At the same time came all the new people whom we met and came to get to know better, both local and expat.
Most time consuming was getting familiar with local customs, how to behave and how not to, what to say and what not to say which is simply working yourself through the cultureshock.
What do I do to make myself feel more at home and comfortable? That is writing to everybody back home about our new place, for by writing about it I manage to keep some distance when I feel overwhelmed by so many new impressions.
I know now that when I feel less need to write, I am getting adjusted and settled.
After some time comes another wave of stories about situations habits and and places, for life has become calmer and there is emotional room to notice what is happening around us.
If we stay long enough, less writing again for there are no such big surprises anymore, just our daily life with all its ups and downs.
Only when friends and family members come over I see their shocks and surprises for living it is not the same as receiving a letter or email and reading about it.
Then I know that I feel fully at home.
And then comes the pain of having to leave again.
We read and speak about the next new country. And again I get this urge to write.. writing is my way to cope with this life, a survival tool.
——You have lived the most amazing life! What a great way to experience life. -Q
Quinn, I always enjoy your drawings and the details you add. Do you keep a nature journal? Genece
–I keep a visual journal, Genece. And right now I am absolutely fascinated by the seed pods that come out in May and June in our area. The plants go dormant in the blazing heat, and then start over in September. -Q