Reflections for a Sunday: A Thousand Possibilities
“I have no reason to go, except that I have never been." ~ Freya Stark
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“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure. You have no idea of what is in store for you, but you will, if you are wise and know the art of travel, let yourself go on the stream of the unknown and accept whatever comes in the spirit in which the gods may offer it. For this reason your customary thoughts, all except the rarest of your friends, even most of your luggage - everything, in fact, which belongs to your everyday life, is merely a hindrance. The tourist travels in his own atmosphere like a snail in his shell and stands, as it were, on his own perambulating doorstep to look at the continents of the world. But if you discard all this, and sally forth with a leisurely and blank mind, there is no knowing what may not happen to you.”
― Freya Stark, Baghdad Sketches
I’m with Freya Stark, forget traveling like a tourist. I’m happiest traveling light, taking off for some obscure place that I’ve found on the map, not knowing what I will find when I get there. In fact, I have never been much interested in material possessions, which just give me claustrophobia. I’m fine with a backpack, my electronics for writing and communicating and a sturdy pair of shoes!
I had to wait until my children were all grown up before I could start on some serious traveling. By the time I landed in Luxor in 2017, where I spent almost three years, I had been traveling off and on for about four years.
Views through windows out into the world, is one of the things I have loved most. I thought I would share some of those views with you today, along with some of the artwork inspired by those views.
I am forever thankful to my wonderful, adventurous parents who most certainly instilled in me a love for travel and adventure. As I’ve mentioned before, I was ten years old when my dad, Dave Hunt, heard the voice of God telling him to become a writer and our family took off to travel the world so he could gain inspiration for his books. I think he would be pleased with how I have carried on the tradition, although he definitely would have frowned on a few of my adventures along the way!
Many of my children’s books were inspired by my childhood travels. I very much wanted to share with other children the sense of wonder, the magic, the joy of exploration, of jumping off into the unknown, that they, too, could know if they just thought outside the box.
Below is a detail of a small drawing of the Yucatán, from All the Children of the World. On each page, along with larger drawings, there are these miniature drawings that just give such a joyful view of the children of each country.
I had a thing with this Godzilla that belonged to my sons. I took it with me everywhere to remind me of them and had fun photographing it in various settings, making it look huge when it was really very small. Here it is in the Sahara Desert. Somewhere along the way, Godzilla escaped! It’s in some country, who knows, maybe some child found it and took it home.
All these places have inspired my writing. They gave me a view of the world, an unexpected perspective, helped me see things I hadn’t seen before.
I want to dedicate this to my mom, Ruth Hunt, who had quite the adventurous spirit. Towards the end of her life when she could no longer travel, she would look up at the sky as a plane passed and sigh, “Oh, how I wish I could be on that plane,” with such yearning.
When I look at this drawing that I did for a story called The Island of Dreams, I often think of my mom and her influence in making me such a strong warrior—although she never did a day of exercise in her life, wasn’t a fan of my full contact kickboxing, and was a Mennonite pacifist!
She is flying high in her heavenly home. When I was a teenager, it was my mom who encouraged me to write and illustrate children’s books.
I illustrated my first book in the 1980s, while living between London and Yugoslavia. It was called Sunita Makes Friends and was one of the first “multicultural” books to be published in the UK, to great fanfare. I worked with two lovely East Indian women who had the dream to start their own publishing company and they ended up being very successful.
There’s nothing like taking off for an adventure. Below is the artwork from my book Goodnight Blessings, where a little girl thanks God for all her blessings before going to sleep at night.
Until a couple of years ago, this was my home base, in Phoenix, Arizona. I love this view. That building reminded me of sci fi futuristic stories.
Much of my sci-fi book Luminaria: Tales of Earth & Oran, Love & Revenge was written with this view as a backdrop.
A short excerpt from Luminaria:
The city spiraled upward to the highest point, where what resembled a great cathedral stood. Thick walls surrounded the city. A river snaked through the valley, passing close to the city walls, fishing boats dotting it here and there. Bright green foliage, fields and trees hugged the edge of the river. The greenery ended in a dramatic, clear cut line, beyond which a wasteland stretched to the far off horizon, jagged mountains rising like teeth against the sky.
“A glittering jewel in a sea of green,” said Hannah.
“What’s that highest point?” asked Lilly, pointing to the structure at the center of the city.
“The Vishku Temple,” said Adonai solemnly. “We go there.”
Slovenia is a second home to me. I lived there in the 1980s, married to a Slovenian. I was at Lake Bled on August 31, 1997, the day Princess Diana died. I saw it on the news and went out onto my balcony to this view, watching as thunder clouds rolled in and the rain began to fall.
The first time I saw Lake Bled, I was eleven years old. It was as if I was coming home, I felt so drawn to it in my spirit. I was back with my family at age eighteen and I vowed I would live there some day. I surely did and it remains a big part of me, forever. Lake Bled was the inspiration for one of the settings in The Night Angels Chronicles series.
Below are three writing views. The first is from an old inn, Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, where I was on a writing fellowship. I was there twice and met the most wonderful people. The second is Ojai, California where I have often gone for a couple of days to write and reflect. The third is the view from my monkish room in Tissardmine, Morrocco, where I was on a writing fellowship.
In Sucre, Bolivia, I was writing Cave of Secrets from The Night Angels Chronicles. I think if I could live anywhere, it would be Sucre, except it’s too hard to reach, high up in the Andes Mountains. Ever since I got stranded in Luxor during Covid, I haven’t wanted to live so far away from my kids and grandkids. The first thing I did when I arrived was to explore the marvelous streets, looking for a boxing club, which I did eventually find.
You can’t beat the view of Vista Fit Club. Early in the morning I would go train with the owner of Vista Fit Club, Pete Garcia, coached by the fantastic Jonathan Ariel Novoa Muñoz.
I never imagined when I was writing the Katie’s World series in the 1990s, that I would travel back once more to the Nile. I wrote the stories, about Russia, Switzerland, Egypt and other countries, much of it based on memories from my own childhood experiences. Looking back, I really like the artwork I did for these beginning reader books. Each book used an adventure to teach history facts and had a moral message. They should be republished because parents need and want books like this, as they are few and far between.
Katie Sails the Nile
Katie imagined herself in the middle of a giant bowl. Moving her head slowly around, she followed the enormous deep blue arc until it met the brown earth in the distance. Along the riverfront the earth turned green. Her eyes followed the green down to the water’s edge and all the way across to the other side of the Nile. Then she followed the arc back up again until she was once more looking straight up at the sky. ~ Katie Sails the Nile
I’ve written about many of the terrifying adventures I had in Luxor, Egypt, but in so many other ways, I loved Luxor, and it makes me sad I can never return. Strong Turkish coffee and a mango smoothie after a run along the Nile, gaining inspiration for the writing of the day, that’s what it was all about.
I started on this drawing while in Luxor, not long before I escape the country. I thought when I started it that it would be inspired by the pharaohs and the tombs, but somehow it evolved into having a more Chinese feel. I love drawing dragons; I’ve loved stories about them since childhood. I still need to finish this!
One of my most wonderful experiences was writing at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, where I am a Lifetime Fellow. I spent a glorious week there, writing A Dangerous Woman, my memoir. From my window in the mansion, this was my view. It made me dream of King Arthur tales.
Tyrone Guthrie invites artists, writers, composures, dancers to spend time there. I met a wonderful artist, Clinton, and we hung out at what looked like the smallest pub in the world, in Neewbliss teon, run by a ninety-plus old lady.
Clinton was from Belfast, and once we both returned home, we collaborated on a project, connecting kids from Shankill Road, the most violent street in Belfast, with kids from a foster home in Los Angeles, many of whom were on probation for serious offenses. Through art and writing, these kids got to know one another, sharing their stories. They couldn’t show their faces since they were minors, so we drew faces on cardboard boxes.
I also worked on A Dangerous Woman in my favorite city of all, Istanbul. I absolutely love Istanbul. I’m not sure I would go back there right now, with all the unrest, and just like Luxor, it makes me very sad. From Istanbul to St. Petersburg, such magical cities have inspired my art, as you can see with the painting on the right below.
It was only about a year and a half ago that I was back in Lake Arenal, Costa Rica for the third time. I even thought of living there, but I don’t want to leave my kids anymore.
I keep saying how much I love each place, and it’s hard really to pick a favorite. When I was a child, each country we entered, my dad would enthusiastically say, “Wow, there’s just something about this country!” I have to agree, no matter where I am, no matter where I live, each place has had its own magic.
Arenal is the complete opposite of all the cities I’ve mentioned. It doesn’t have impressive manmade structures. The nature of Arenal is perhaps even more awe-inspiring than any city could ever be. The jungle is teaming with life, bugs, monkeys, panthers, crocodiles, volcanos, the best pineapple you will ever eat. From my balcony, I could just make out the volcano in the distance, if it wasn’t cloudy, which it mostly was. Living in the jungle you have to get used to being soaked all the time. Either from a tropical downpour or sweat—or both!
I was obsessed with Arenal volcano, and who wouldn’t be.
I am ending with Tilaran, Costa Rica. By the time I was there last, I was writing Break Free on Substack and wondering if I would ever get back to my art and my unfinished books. But this is where my heart is right now, writing these essays and I’m so thankful that I have the opportunity to do so.
Here is where young people come to watch the sunset.
“Take me back to the night we met.”
It’s peaceful, youth sitting quietly as the sun goes down, perhaps sharing the moment with a friend.
This is some of my family in Slovenia. My life would never have been enriched with knowing them if I hadn’t traveled as a child and kept at it. When you step into the unknown, you open the door to a thousand possibilities. I thank God for giving me such an adventurous spirit. Without it, I wouldn’t have anything interesting to say on Break Free!
Oh, and that scarf around my shoulders, it’s been with me everywhere, from the Sahara Desert to Martha’s Vineyard. Goodness for so many years, I can’t even count. I don’t know where I would be without that scarf!
Thank you for coming with me on this writing adventure.
"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!" ~ 1 Chronicles 16:34
Karen,
You are a woman of many amazing talents, with incredible stories to tell, about all your exciting adventures. I guess you could be called, "the Most interesting woman in the world", like that guy who used to do the Dos Equis beer commercials. Keep on keeping on.
I love travel and seeing new everything. I find myself envious of your adventures!
Where are your children's books available? I would love to introduce them to my grandchildren.