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The mystery in which I find Grace.


Every time I sit down to write in my blog I marvel at how much time has passed since my last post. So much for a weekly writing practice in 2019! I should know better than to make any New Years resolutions!

So, it is the first day of the third month of 2019 already and I have to say that it has been a pleasant, calm and peaceful couple of months. I have slid right into an easy momentum and created a routine that consists of gardening, painting, basket making, and domesticity. Every now and then I venture out into the greater world in search of an adventure. I bring inspiration home with me.

These days have been largely about nurturing my soul and finding a concrete footing for my heart and spirit so that I can tackle life’s challenges in a meaningful way and develop greater resilience.

We live in a time when it is easy to become overwhelmed by concerns for the health of our planet, our future and the future of generations to come. It seems that many people are feeling the weight of these issues manifest in fear and anxiety, sometimes even in depression or a strong existential angst. It is difficult to admit that we, all of us, have contributed to climate change and the pollution of our earth, but we must acknowledge our part in the great melodrama in order to see the truth and heal the wounds we helped create.

The key to assuaging guilt, which is often paralysing and unhelpful, is to realise that we are one part of the greater whole, a product of the universe, creatures of the environment in which we were birthed. Who knows why we have such destructive habits, why our brains can identify them, but why we find it so hard to change? I certainly do not know. But I know that this whole great system, whether created or formed from an infinitesimally small chance, is the mystery in which I find Grace. It is the force greater than myself, the higher power, the alpha and the omega, and from this I draw my strength.

Simple things like digging my hands in the earth remind me that I arise out of this rich brown decaying matter. The soil and I are connected in a very real way. So I ask myself, ‘why would you harm the earth? The earth is what you are.’ I have come to see that in this way self-respect and caring for yourself is the ultimate in exhibiting your love for the earth. I am not talking about new age self-care routines which border on indulgence, ‘health’ obsessions which focus on superficiality or anything that is marketed to you under the umbrella of ‘health, fitness or self care.’ What I am talking about is a sincere attempt to gather all of life’s disparate threads and weave them together into a vessel of inner peace that I can draw on in times of struggle and scatter back into the world.

A machine is the sum of its parts. We are all a part. What we do matters. How we exist matters. So, this is where I am at, looking at the interplay between all things and examining my place in it all. Isn’t life a total hoot? Hahaha!

In the studio I have been taking things very slowly and letting myself feel my way into a new phase of making that is less frenetic, and less self conscious. I am very proud of the work I have done over the past few years but I do admit to falling into a habit of making work that was well received by others. When you make things to sell you kind of have to be concerned about that! But now it's time for me to make work that I love and just see where it goes. The whales are still with me and don't seem to be going anywhere so that's a relief because I would miss them so much if they were to ever escape my heart.

I am drawing a lot, creating characters from beautiful whale images I find online, enjoying the process, indulging in it, and focussing on the love of creation. I am also making baskets like a fiend. I spend hours upon hours weaving raffia and natural fibres into bowls and vessels and it is incredibly satisfying. Perhaps I will share some of these in my store soon.

So, it appears I had a lot to say today! Just a little update from my heart into the great noise of the internet.

Be well salty friends. xx

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