Landmark memories

"Landmark memories," 5 x 7 watercolor holiday greeting card

Landmarks, before GPS and detailed maps, loomed large in travel and history.

To me, and others, they are still important, and when I travel, I look for those as signals of memories and  of the stages of my trips.  Some are relatively small, but significant to me. 

Others capture my imagination, like the historic Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. It's literally a landmark, made of adobe, and the center of a civilization older than the United States, or the first European invaders. Many landmarks accrue a sense of power, of sacredness, of influence.

You and I can't visit there now, as it is closed to the public because of the quarantine. But that makes it even more precious. And like many landmarks around the world, considered as sacred by the inhabitants or others.

Thus today's watercolor...not architecturally accurate, but painted as an icon and lasting symbol of living, of memories, of landmarks of imagination, of travels, of special people. And I do know there is now there now, and on the sacred mountain, another landmark.