An Invitation to Wander

Recently, a young person came into Home Plate Provisions, and we started chatting. They saw the mention on our chalkboard of the Picnic Map of Wilmington and asked about it with enthusiastic curiosity. We opened one together and surveyed the artwork, locations and associated information. They asked thoughtful questions about the site choices — several of which were unfamiliar, which was one of my goals in creating the map — and added a map to their purchase. “Obviously!” they said.

I explained that I had commissioned a watercolor illustrator whose work I admired online, Elana Núñez-Tiso, to design the map and paint the illustrations. It had been a marvelous collaboration from start to finish. We seemed to speak the same language, aesthetically and in terms of process. She understood my goals and rationale and worked methodically to circle closer at each phase to a final product that was beautiful and functional — something that was exactly what we each, and both, wanted to create.

The young customer said, “You just commissioned her to do this?” And I said, “Yeah! You can just do that!” We proceeded to have a conversation both wide and deep about what a wonder, and gift, it is to make small dreams come true. To say yes to opportunities and make things tangible. To reach out to someone and propose something fun, interesting, worth discussing or worth examining further. To take a risk because the possibility of success through connection, shared vision and building something bigger is so much greater than the small likelihood of “no.”

I hope people enjoy the map, its evocative illustrations and its useful information. I hope it prompts locals and visitors alike to visit a new or long-forgotten place and to relish our great good fortune in being in this beautiful, ecologically and geographically diverse place. To sit quietly with some hazelnuts or plantain chips and one’s thoughts, or raucously with wine, cheese and friends.

I really hope it prompts you to think about what modest but wonderfully achievable dream you might have. I hope it reminds you to just reach out to someone, inquire more deeply about something and make the things you want but don’t have. To make the things you want other people to have. To spark an unlikely conversation in which the only natural response is, “Obviously!”

Home Plate Provisions is a regional specialty grocery and gift shop on Wilmington’s Castle Street featuring iconic products from across the United States, including many picnic staples and a one-of-a-kind picnic location map of Wilmington. The store offers a thoughtfully curated selection of foods, gifts, books, art and household goods while regularly partnering with local artists, nonprofits and community organizations. 

Visit homeplateprovisions.com or follow @homeplateprovisions on Instagram.