Revisiting this card brings a big smile to my face even though when I made it I felt a little sad. I was on Day 82 of my drawing project and was really feeling the distance apart from close friends.  I vaguely remember a friend from college going through a difficult year and I felt a bit helpless because she lived so far away and we had lost touch over the years so it was hard to feel like I could be there for her.

So as I was drawing this nasturtium plant, I started by sketching in each of the leaves and flowers in a way where they almost felt like solitary islands floating apart from each other...but then, as I started drawing the stems, I realized that no matter how much we may grow apart from each other, friendship is like that stem that keeps us connected. And that connection between friends is truly like a lifeline that is able to  transcend distance and time.

Since I made this drawing, the nasturtium has become like a friend to me.  I started noticing it growing wildly all over the city where I live. I see it in my backyard, on roadsides and pathways along my favorite walks. When I get lost or discover a new hike, I often spot it like it is this constant companion and guide that makes a new place feel familiar.

I even noticed it in the poetry and drawings of a San Francisco beat poet, Philip Whelan, whose poetry I was reading that summer.  His own notebooks are filled with sketches of nasturtiums and it made me wonder if he had the same experience I did noticing them growing all over the city. In that way, I started to feel like he was a friend of a friend. The connection is a bit imagined, but it makes me smile to this day to be able to feel connected to someone I’ve never met before through this plant and flower.