book it

Prior to my departure for Morocco, I made a paper book with my staff at the hospital as part of our weekly wellness meetings. We were all supposed to complete a front and back binder for our books, I promised to do this while I was away since I would be across the ocean when the team met to share their creations. Honestly, when I packed it with a small box of art supplies, I thought that box would only see the light of day when I unpacked it back in the States. Imagine my surprise when we had a free afternoon in Ouarzazate and I found myself taking watercolors to the pool to paint in the book as I chatted with my friends and other travelers from our group.

Another night in Marrakesh, I had a sore throat. Not wishing to get really sick and wanting to be well enough to go to Essaouira the next morning, I missed seeing the Square at night, took some medicine, and thought I would doze off. Instead, I collaged on one page of the book and used a large postcard obtained in the medina in Fes to make the front and back binders. And then it hit me…this book was the size of a passport! I decided that I would turn it into a Moroccan memory; slept like a baby once that was settled.

In Casablanca, I glued clippings of the logos from each of the six hotels along with my boarding pass onto a page and thought about what else I’d include when I got home. Eventually local stamps and money, my favorite postcards, a picture of me and my three girlfriends, pictures that I took of two elders that I met who had deep wisdom etched on their faces, my badge from the Mosque, my name written in Arabic, a page dedicated to how I spent my birthday, and the business cards from restaurants completed the pages.

I tied the tiny Hand of Fatima I wore while there and a bead found in a small store in Casablanca to the outside as finishing touches and tucked in a photo of me on the camel on the Sahara dunes along with a picture of artwork seen in the most unexpected location.

The book became a place to put the trinkets that normally find their way to a box or somewhere else when I get back from a trip. It’s something I now hold dear and will continue to cherish each time I take it out of a special packet that I put it in along with small three dimensional objects, larger postcards that wouldn’t fit in the book and the orange “b. glaurieous” bracelet worn each day in memory of our friend Barbara who would have been with us on this trip had she not passed in February; she was there in spirit every step and marvel along the way.

Never would I have imagined that a plain book of paper, sewed together with ordinary yarn would come to be so extraordinary with meaning. By all means use this idea, I know I will again because speaking of booking it, I’ve already made a deposit on a trip for 2014, so stayed tuned and …

keep your peepers open!®