When Are We Here and Not Here?

My good friend Lyndia Terre, a fellow artist and "seeker," has commissioned me to paint her portrait. Unlike most of my clients Lyndia allows me to paint the portrait I choose rather than what she dictates. I have already painted both of her children. I am in the midst of deciding how to express her image and what I know about her, indicating both her truth and her mystery. We all have both. We are "here" in the physical world and another part is "not here" in the physical world. How to show both? We have ghosts of ourselves to consider, and from infancy to death do these ghosts change or just accumulate? What lifestyle does any of us really want and how close do any of us get to that ideal? Lyndia needs the balance of city and country and struggles with how to accommodate these opposing requirements. The very wealthy can have homes any where they choose and go from one to the other at will but the rest of us make do with feeling fortunate if we can maintain one place for shelter and comfort. Some do not have any choice beyond life on the streets or drifting from place to place with no anchor. How important is the place we call "home?"