No. 230: Girl On Her Mountain

No. 230, "Kalea" by Tom Wills, December 2013

The prayer on this drawing is the short version.
I edited it to fit on the mountainside, and to describe the scenery.
The full version means much to the young woman who took it to the top of the Andes mountains, Kalea Hall.

She is, by now, used to my chipping away at words.  She works at a newspaper where I am her editor.
But I felt a little uneasy messing with a prayer, let alone someone's favorite one. So, in a reversal of roles, I had her proofread and approve the edited prayer.

The complete Journeying Prayer is:

Jesus, take me once again on a journey.

Take me to the city.

Take me to the valley and to the mountain.

Take me to the desert,

Take me to the place of wondering,

The place of hunger,

The place of solitude and pain.

Take me to the place where you seem so far away

Yet only You are there.

Remove my possessions,

Remove the pillars of my faithless life,

Remove all the thumbs I suck.

And there in that place, where nothing is left, 

There refine my soul.

Amen.

  

 This is Kalea's story.

"For three weeks in May 2011 I decided to take on an adventure of a lifetime by traveling to Peru. I went with a group of college students my age and three chaperones from the Coalition for Christian Outreach.
Our purpose was to serve the communities we entered and to grow our faith and trust in God. And to realize how we can live with just the small things in life if we truly believe in ourselves and in God. We were all mostly strangers, but in those few weeks our bond became as strong as a family unit. Especially on the trek up the Andes mountains to see the beautiful lost Incan city, Choquequirao."

 

"After our stay in Lima, Peru and Huancayo, Peru we moved on to Cusco, Peru where we awaited the trek. We all knew it would be difficult. We all knew we weren't really ready. But we were fixated at reaching our goal and completing the trek.
"I was one of the members of the group that never camped out and never actually trekked up a mountain and back down. I was nervous, but did my best to hold it in. This was also my first time overseas.
Our tour guide, Miguel, was known as the best in town, along with his crew of mule herders and the "little chef," Juancito. It looked like we had the best team on board to get us through five days and four nights of roughing it. The trek itself was about 20 miles up and 20 miles down. In high altitude, which made it even more difficult."

"We trekked around  8-10 miles daily just to get through. This drawing is of me at the top of the mountain. At this point we reached Choquequirao. The view was astounding. I can't even begin to describe the beauty besides that it was the best reward and it brought tears to my eyes. This trek taught me how much I can truly handle. I was in pain throughout the trek from blisters. But that didn't stop me. If it were not for the group of people I just met encouraging me to just keep going, I know I wouldn't have made it all the way. My faith in myself and hope that God would give me the strength to keep going also got me through this seemingly insurmountable journey."

"Sadly, Miguel, our beloved tour guide, was killed on this very trek not even a year after my trip in a landslide. Just knowing him in those five short days, I realized he wouldn't have wanted to live on this earth any other way."

The drawing itself was difficult. I used two photographs: One of Kalea and the mountains, and one of the sky and the mountains. I sketched her in first.
The mountaintops came next, and then the valleys. I was working from a color photo to black and white, so I shaded carefully with my pencils.
I drew in the clouds before stenciling on the letters, and inking them to stand out.

A very nice note that I will keep.

You can follow the process, below.
The lettering is hand-inked and it's not perfect, but it looks right -- not machined, not mass-produced.
It's natural, and flowing, much like the mountains and the clouds.
This was a wonderful project to undertake.