"If These Walls Could Speak" by Dan Oberg, artist's footprints, watercolor & ink pen, 2020
I had the privilege of participating in an online class with my former community, the Grunewald Guild, this past week. Entitled "Pilgrimage in Place: Drawing Our Journeys" with artist Matthew Whitney, we did meditative exercises focused upon the places we walk every day. We then created maps of our paths, using line, texture, words and images. For me, since I spend so much of my days walking up and down the hill here at St. Andrew's, my "map" was a simple drawing of the campus: the Lodge & Cottage, green spaces, driveway & highway, and the fabulous Hood Canal.
Walking it on the second day of class, barefoot, I became very aware of the many feet that have trod over this space for so many years. The blessedness of this beautiful "thin place" is not only it's natural wonders, but primarily the sacred times shared by its people for so long. To image that experience, I dipped my feet in watercolor, and made footprints over the map. I then took paint and colored in the places where my footprints overlapped the different elements of the map, and did a "paint by number": browns for buildings, green for lawn & garden, blue-gray for asphalt, and bright blue for the Canal.
As I thought & prayed over the image, the classic song by Jimmy Webb, "If These Walls Could Speak," kept coming into my mind. So, that's what I called it. Here are the verses of the song, which so aptly describe some of the memories made at St. Andrew's House. Thank you for all of them.
If these old walls, if these old walls could speak
Of things that they remember well
Stories and faces dearly held
A couple in love livin' week to week
Rooms full of laughter
If these walls could speak
If these old halls, hallowed halls could talk
These would have a tale to tell
Of sun goin' down and dinner bell
And children playing at hide and seek
From floor to rafter
If these halls could speak
If these old fashioned window panes were eyes
I guess they would have seen it all
Each little tear and sigh and footfall
And every dream that we came to seek
Or followed after
If these walls could speak
from "If These Walls Could Speak" by Jimmy Webb