Returning to What Feels Essential about Practice
Creative practice in community can open up spaces to be together with uncertainty and vulnerability and to connect through allowing ourselves to be seen and heard.
Since March and the start of the pandemic, this newsletter has been an essential way I feel a connection with a larger creative community.
Thank you for your presence here and for being a part of this.
During the month of October, I found I needed to settle into a slower pace, time for remembering and reflection and connection within. The tree pictured here is one in the woods behind my home, a spot for reflection, connection and wonder with this stunning being.
Writing now at the start of November, I am noticing how fitting it feels to acknowledge the Day of the Dead and All Saints and All Souls Days on the eve of our election. In fall, nature reminds us of death and loss all around, leaves fall, plants wither. As a newer gardener, I can't help but think I have done something wrong as I watch my plants shrivel. Then I remember this is the season for harvest and then clearing, for fallow ground getting ready for winter.
The sadness that settled around me in October was a familiar rhythm and also one that felt unique this year, worth attending to, to take some time to sit with loss and grief. On the Sounds True podcast, "Making Friends with Anxiety...and All of Our Emotions," Karla McLaren speaks of how sadness comes to help us slow down. I found following this advice to be a helpful reminder, a way to be gentle with myself. I began October with a thought to proceed as I have many times before, to engage in and post about a daily creative practice. A few days in, it felt forced and stressful and not in tune with the true rhythm of where I was. I shifted gears to think of October as a time for rest, review and pause, for slowness and trust.
Practices that sustained me through this time allowed me to rest in repetition, through knitting, work with clay, to connect on a deeper more personal level through letters and emails to friends in lieu of posting on social media, taking long walks and even just time to sit in nature. I spent a long time sitting at the foot of this tree, noticing the small fish in the pool beside it and wondering at the many species of plants that grow in the forest, thankful for how many more I can greet by name.
The last week of October, my sons and I traveled to Sandbridge beach for some time away, a chance to try our daily routines of school and work from home in a new environment. I used this time to review some of the writing I had done in the past year related to ideas on creative practice. I'm thankful for this time away and for the limit of taking only one thing with me. Sometimes in the rush and energy of creating, I move from one thing to another and miss the time for review. I was reminded of what's true and essential to me about creative practice.
Themes that emerged include a focus on ways practice expands a sense of belonging; experts and beginners can join as peers if we focus on the doing rather than the level of accomplishment. Practice ties together creative and spiritual activities, it invites a trust that the showing up and connection are more important than correctness and that we can work toward realizing intentions over time. Practice helps us find common ground; connections across disciplines and ideologies can be found through looking at how we act to create, care and connect with each other.
Belonging, showing up and connection are important practices in our democracy too. I voted early on October 31 and was struck by the energy and joy of civic engagement. If you have already voted, thank you. If you will be going to the polls tomorrow, I urge you to be sure to pause, notice your peers in this important practice, thank your election workers who help us all to be able to show up safely. I thank you for showing up.
Prayer candles can be a lovely practice to remember and celebrate those we have lost. This year, I reflect not only on the losses but also on the ways ancestors and creative teachers have inspired me and the ways their voices live on in my work. In addition to our familial lineage, it can be a helpful exercise to reflect on influences in your creative or vocational lineage, the mentors, teachers, public figures and fellow travelers who have inspired you along the way.
I particularly love Mr. Roger's invitation to "Take a moment to remember all who loved you into being."
Thank you all who participated in my first on-line workshop, creating prayer candles for the International Day of Peace in September. It was lovely to gather together in contemplative space. I'm thinking about ways to offer further opportunities to gather on-line, to share contemplative studio practice. I invite you to email me if you have ideas for offerings you would like to see.
If you are interested in creating your own candles, you can watch the introduction video from September here.
NEW! Laser Cut Print
I've been working with a printer to be able to create laser cut reproductions of my paper cuts. The first one, the Mother Trees title image for the series is now available; prints are matted and ready for framing in standard frames.
Mother Trees Cards
The current card set includes reproductions of 12 paper cuts inspired by voices of nature and nurture. This series will be retired later this month, as I work toward imagining new forms for this work. There are still a few available on my ETSY store.
Thank you
for reading and being a part of creative community through this newsletter. With a grateful heart,
Kathryn