Magic

I feel like I've been on a decades-long visionquest, but I guess it's only been twelve days total since I left this fair city of Austin to voyage to the City of Brotherly Love, among other places. It was a big ol' fat royal adventure, is what it was. This is NOT my native land and I have to admit I even faced this trip with more than a wee bit of trepidation... family reunion for Matt's mom's side of the family, a whole lot of socializing and uncertainty with three little kids in tow, but, what can I say? It met AND/OR exceeded my expectations by far.

One day was spent in South Philly where my sister-in-law Amy lives... we visited the Magic Gardens... well, just take a gander at these photos and see that it's the most amazing place ever and the story will make your heart melt... this artist Isiah Zagar who started transforming this empty lot in his neighborhood into this wonderland about fifteen years ago... and then in 2002 the city decided to sell the lot and tear it all down and the neighborhood rallied to preserve it and now of course it's alive and thriving. Isiah even teaches workshops on this mosaic work that he does at least once a month and all around the neighborhood now people have mosaic-ed their own buildings! Whole building-faces three or four stories high. I'm so bowled over by how beautiful and sweet and cute and inspiring it is that this one cool guy has created this ripple effect of art and fun and creativity that's spreading through a whole city. I'm dead set on returning sometime soon, soon, soon I hope to participate in own of his workshops. It's so perfect for Mungo. And I just would love to spend time around a guy who really seems to have the '24 hours a day of love and play' paradigm in effect, for sure.