Things get easier for me as I get older. I am not totally without stress, but I have somehow managed to get through without panic these days. I used to think a certain day or certain event would take place that would trigger my demise, or at least a downward slide. In fact, things go much slower than that.
Town Hall Stimigliano Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 16 x 23" 41 x 59cm
And a downward slide is often not downward, but sideways and sometimes results in a positive new direction. Things fail because they weren’t right. I think of how life would be now, had Blair and I stayed in Seattle propping up our business, Pessemier’s Commercial Interior Design? Still in Seattle, we’d probably be millionaires. But would we have become artists? We certainly wouldn’t have the rich experiences and same wonderful friendships we have now. Failure clears the stage for a new act.
Hills in the Morning Laurie Fox Pessemier 10 x 14" 25 x 35cm
Had we not “failed”, we wouldn’t be sitting in this huge house thinking about our new little apartment in Stimigliano. The apartment is not perfect, but it is interesting, easy to take care of, and most of all it represents a beginning. Having arrived is not what it’s cracked up to be. Having more mountains to scale, at least mentally, is more fun.
Hills, Sabina Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 10 x 14" 25 x 35cm
Our first day in the new apartment in Stimigliano we met M, a teacher. He is so enthusiastic about the area, he piled us into his car and took us to Vescovia, where there are remnants of Roman baths, and a church over a crypt where St. Peter once said a mass: incredible, goose-pimply historical events. The church was decorated with late 13th/early 14th century frescoes painted by Cavallini. The adjacent baths peeked through the green grass growing 2000 years later.
There were times we’d not have hopped in a car, and driven off with a stranger. As a child, I never even imagined I’d see Italy. How thrilling.
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