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Sometimes you just have to go for it. Maybe it’s not exactly how you have dreamed it up in your head, but if you jump – if you “begin anywhere” – you can go on from there.

For several years, Patrick, Tulsi and I have been *talking* about getting a dreamy VW pop-top, OR a fun-n-funky gypsy wagon, a vintage trailer OR even a school bus, and hitting the open road. Have you thought of, or done, the same?  When this little trailer came up for sale this Spring in Santa Fe, we jumped on it. (Plus, Tulsi had a very similar looking one glued to her “vision board” so it was bound to be.) We had been planning to return to the Redwoods in Northern CA to do fundraising events with Luna & Me, and when our plans expanded into a book tour, we decided to take the camper, aka the Magic Turtle. Tulsi and I decorated it to feel like home with flower-embroidered curtains, a felted mobile, dried marigold strands, and a photo collage/”Beloved board” of our family and friends. In July, we set off on our maiden voyage for 5 weeks and traveled over 4,500 miles across 10 gorgeous states: New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

What a magical country we live in!

There is so much I love about traveling. Spontaneity, and how one experience can lead you to another completely unplanned moment. I especially crave the open road – through vast landscapes with enormous skies, along windy rivers that change color at every bend, and through old towns that whisper stories as you pass by. It nurtures my creative spirit. I love the feeling of freedom and calmness – no rushing – space to think and breathe. And even though we moved around a lot, being outside nearly all day every day grounded us. If it was hot and we passed by a river, we stopped, played with rocks, splashed, made tea, and dunked in frigid waters while screaming in pure delight, heart racing, laughing, and feeling 1000% alive.

We camped nearly every night in our Magic Turtle – on empty ocean beaches with driftwood playgrounds and sea stack Giants, down mysterious National Forest dirt roads, sweet state parks, high mountain meadows, even our friends’ backyard. Our camper was cozy (6’3″x6’3″x13′) and ideal for road travel since we could pull it with our little Suburu Outback, and we could stop anywhere – the base of a golden and crimson arch in Moab or a small town park/playground – cook a meal easily and run off to explore. Oh, it was really dreamy. I couldn’t stop smiling.

A few of the MANY highlights …

– On our first night out, we pulled into a meadow on a stunning high mountain pass in New Mexico when a wild rain + thunderstorm burst from the skies seconds after we got into the Turtle. We were dry, cozy, had a lovely, “home-cooked” meal by candlelight, and slept all night to sweet rain music (my favorite!).

– the postcard Tulsi mailed to Oso the 2nd day away

– We spent 5 special days at the Mendocino Woodlands State Park at a Sufi camp. Patrick taught Ayurveda/chai classes and led a Hindu ceremony while Tulsi, Narayan and I played at the ‘kids’ camp’. Every morning, the entire camp gathered for dances of universal peace and then the kids ran through a circular tunnel made of their elders’ joined hands, and off we went to explore. We discovered a red-legged frog in a creek and “stumbled upon” a nest of featherless baby hummingbirds camouflaged under a spiderweb atop green furry moss, in the nook of a redwood tree!

– One of my favorite dances of universal peace was to this beautiful tune by Tom Chapin, which Blue now loves to fall asleep to. Such a pretty lullabye.

“This pretty planet spinning through space, You’re a garden, you’re a harbor, you’re a holy place,

Golden sun going down, Gentle blue giant spin us around,

All through the night, Safe til the morning light.”

– Luna & Me came full circle when we returned to Humboldt County, CA where we journeyed 2 years earlier to visit Luna and research/camp in the redwood forest. This time, we did 3 wonderful and successful fundraising events with Sanctuary Forest, caretakers of The Luna Preserve. What a fun and dedicated group of people doing great work for the environment!

– I loved connecting with the kids at events and visiting amazing indie bookstores!

– reconnecting with old friends, meeting friends I had only known via blogs/fb before, and encountering a lot of really kind-hearted people

– reading A Wrinkle in Time aloud in the car, on the beach, by the light of the campfire… love, love, love!

– reading, reading, and more reading!

– camping on the Southern Oregon Coast! The beaches are public, and we had the most magical beach to ourselves. We rolled out of bed onto cool, soft sand and explored in our jammies with not a care in the world.

– fairy-like Ferry rides from island to island in the Puget Sound and learning that Orca whales breathe in unison while traveling together!

– long hike with 2 kids to wild hot springs in Idaho

– witnessing a young bat swimming in a lake and flapping its way to shore where it rested and dried (and we admired)

– simply being together in nature

Maybe we’re just lucky, but we have two of the best travelers, Ever. Tulsi is such a free-spirited, ‘wild child’, and she flourished on this trip. She made us laugh non-stop, and made new friends easily even though she says she’s shy. She met new, and sometimes scary/challenging opportunities, with courage and wonder, and from these, she grew stronger, wiser, more confident, and more compassionate. I love watching her grow. And Narayan Blue radiates so much love and light from his brilliant blue eyes and joyous smile. It was awesome to watch him investigate every rock, pine cone, beach, and salty, worn piece driftwood. His favorite word for the trip was “MAMA!” which melted my heart. He learned to crawl forward during our travels and was a social butterfly making everyone he met, smile. Isn’t it a joy watching our children bring joy to others (friends and strangers alike) just by being themselves?

We learned a few things from this “trial excursion” with our camper:  we could easily go for longer (we seem to have little needs but being in nature), no agenda would be fun, we appreciated the simplicity of having little ‘stuff” with us, the camper was grounding for the kids and made camping/road-tripping easy, and we couldn’t get enough of the ocean (lakes, creeks, rivers, too!). We are ready for more. With homeschooling again this year, we are already planning field-trips with the Turtle!

Here’s another favorite song (from the Shaker tradition) that seems to sum up the way our little family lives, whether on the road or on our homestead. Such a gift.

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain’d,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.

I am perpetually late sending off birthday cards. Blogging is no different. It’s nearly June, and not only do I have a six-month old son who oozes sweetness, I have a new book that got its wings a couple weeks ago – Luna and Me: The True Story of a Girl Who Lived in a Tree to Save a Forest, based on Julia Butterfly Hill’s tree-sit in an ancient Redwood tree. Contrary to most kids guesstimate that it takes me one week or one month to make a book, Luna and Me took me longer to write and illustrate than Butterfly’s 738-day tree-sit. Ha. An epic journey for sure, but I loved it all.

We celebrated with a fun launch party Taos-style with a packed house of friends who braved the hail and COLD (yes, in May!) and were rewarded with Patrick’s spicy, hot chai, ginger owl cookies, and a book. :) The best part was when my friends’ son perfectly timed his desire to climb the carved “trunk” when I read, “To exercise, Butterfly climbed to the very top of Luna every day. With sticky sappy feet, she crawled like a spider up and down Luna’s trunk.” Hee!

I feel blessed and grateful every time I think of the long list of people who helped me with research (!!), editing, feedback, listening to me talk about it (!), childcare (so I could paint), turning my paintings upside down for new perspective, sharing cool collage papers, and so on.

And as much as my mind is focused on new books, it was important to stop for a moment and celebrate. Julia is an amazing example of how everyone can make a difference. We all have gifts to offer! I hope Luna and Me inspires readers to be caretakers for our magical and beautiful world and to take long walks with the trees.

xoJenny

P.S. I had the honor of being interviewed recently by the AMAZING, thoughtful, and Busy Librarian, Matthew Winner, about Luna and Me on his “Let’s Get Busy” podcast. I wish I had M.W. for a librarian when I was little!!

P.S. #2 Check out my summer schedule in the Midwest, CA, OR, WA, WY and NM. Hope to see some of you at an event!

“Baby, you are my sunny afternoon,

you sprinkle magic in my heart.” – Tulsi, age 5

It’s 5:08 AM and has over a year since I last wrote in this space. Much can happen in a year, like a 4 year old (now 5) blowing my mind nearly every day with the ways she dances through her magical world, so free, her heart and mind wide open. I finished the children’s book that I went to the Redwoods to research last year, and it was dreamy, really, how Tulsi actively contributed in my process. She “played” out the story and quoted many lines from the manuscript. Sitting side by side, we elaborated and refined drawings from my initial dummy sketches while looking at photos from our trip. She freely offered countless ideas of details to add (or even hide) in the pictures. I treasured her unpredictable and untrained color sense while we both painted color studies of every illustration. And during long days of painting, she would climb up on her step stool next to me, gift encouraging “wow”s, thoughtful questions, keen observations only a child would notice, and even draw in wee details! It was such a treasure sharing this process with her.

The publishing world moves at a comparable rate to mine these days (ha), so even though I shipped off 20 illustrations mid-March, you’ll still have to wait until Fall 2015 to see it. I wanted to share a glimpse of LUNA & ME before I’m too engrossed in the next book(s). :) LUNA & ME, The True Story of a Girl Who Lived in a Tree to Save a Forest is a picture book inspired by environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill’s two year tree sit in an ancient Redwood tree. Her story (and so many other environmentalists) inspire me to do what I can to care for our world using my own talents. One thing I love about this book is Julia’s example of acting from a place of love and compassion and then adding passion, dedication, faith, education, teamwork and endurance, to create change. And it is a magical, powerful story – one I am so happy my kids, and your’s, will know.

And recently, it has been awesome watching my incredible designer work her own sweet magic on the interior and cover design. So many people have supported this project, and I can’t wait to share it with you! – with Christy Ottaviano Books