Everland

Where does the inner child go when our physical forms mature? What does being an adult actually require? Why do we seem to think that wonder, faith, and catching the magic of the ordinary cannot coexist with responsibility, "reality", and the darker side of life?

I think just as there is no pleasure unmixed with pain, there is no pain unmitigated by pleasure -- so long as we dare to be brave enough to seek for it. I have always had a gift for seeing the beautiful in the ordinary and remembering to look up in the dark times; for that is when the stars shine most brightly. Often I feel like the perpetual child in life, and while there are downsides to this, I think the world I see is more beautiful than the one observed by those around me.

I started Everland as a visual journal of sorts, a "snapshot" of my day-to-day travels through life and the world inside my head. I didn't share these images for a fair amount of time, as I thought of my little watercolors as mere sketches that caught a moment meaningful only to myself. To my astonishment, first a friend, then my family, and then nearly every person who saw these first glimpses into Everland, expressed some feeling of connection to a particular scene. Many have been moved to tears or unable to even put into words exactly what deep part of themselves is moved by my little world. I wonder and hope, though, if maybe that child that lives in each of us has finally glimpsed a world where they are welcome and no longer have to hide...