after all this, here is what it seems
after all of it. the fear, the grief, then anger, then grief again, what is left at the end of all that
is
where you were. Showing Up. Facing what you know. Loving the World. but, also, an understanding of the vulnerability of it. the Willingness to accept that as part of the Whole. ok.
it is all so vulnerable.. i sometimes wake in the night and think how fragile it all is. yet we live like we have total control and it will all go on forever.
hard to imagine it all
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ps
i love this cloth and her face is so haunting.
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I am reading Joanna Macy’s World as Lover, World as Self this morning…It is good to see this up close.
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By giving her a face she has become an individual, and then part of her identity becomes “showing up.” I’m thinking a lot this morning. 🙂
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maybe we made the same post this morning.
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subtle features……… just enough. Your work/your words have me thinking alot about SELF and acceptance and LOVE! You/She are gorgeous beings! xo Sandy
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yes fragile and vulnerable – but I always have the impression that you add a sort of strength to it. not in the meaning of power but well earthed. Even if she seems to float … how can this happen ??
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the here and there of things. fragility calls on strength. letting things break down in order to recreate. new possibilities abound i think…(hi wendy-it’s been a while!) you look a little windblown here…
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I was reading an essay honouring the Tasmanian wilderness photographer Peter Dombrovskis and his predecessor & mentor Olegas Truchanas & thought of you and “She” in this paragraph-
“… and that, like all powerful artistic ideas, contained a universe within it. For many on the island, these two artists were liberating – they showed us we lived not imprisoned in a small place dully conformist to a weary century-old trope, but as a part of a world of infinite possibility. But in so doing they also drew attention to the profound human choice that went with that world. To seek to know better, to love it, or to agree to its destruction.”
from the essay “It’s Peter Dom” by Richard Flanagan in “And What Do You Do, Mr Gable?”
& Grace your work does this, “She” helps us to make this choice to love & look after our precious earth, thank you Crow Sister!
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i am blown away by this piece, this post
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i no longer live that way
and it is ok.
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haunting. you know…there were other faces before this
one. and i was not at all sure about this one. again…
i try and try to make a certain kind of face. not young
not old…just some kind of generic face….and i haven’t
yet. unless there is angst, like the first face of this
being. does it take angst to give a face the character i
am looking for? maybe. but i don’t want it to NEED to be
there. So much of the space between the ripples is soft,
smooth, just GOODNESS. i need a face that expresses that
too because it IS as much as any of it, Real and There.
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That one is next. Right now, am reading Active Hope, How
to Face the Mess We’re In Without Going Crazy
and it’s all just falling into place…an example thereof:
the day after i began the Cairn, i arrive at page 79 in
the chapter: Honoring Our Pain For the World….
lo and behold
“Using Ceremony
Try this: A personal Cairn of Mourning”
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yes. there is the urge to leave the faceless figure.
Sometimes, with some cloths, that might be right. but
with this cloth, yes…as you say…”showing up is the
identity” required for the work….
and in this instance, it’s the vulnerability
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i receive this as a Kiss on the Forehead from The God Thing
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oh, Sandy. gorgeous….eeeee, but that word made me smile.
my grandson became fond of it when he was about 4 yrs.
things were gorgeous….all manner of things, to him. things most might not label as such, so…
xoxo to you, love
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Doris…i always love how you see things. i think there
is a sort of strength to everything, don’t you? like it
arises, trying to be the most it possibly can. sometimes
missing the mark, but always, that is the Hope? …there
it is…i used that word…hope….that i have trouble with.
maybe floating can be
hovering?
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i like those words…”letting things break down in order to
recreate”. like that a LOT.
and windblown…i always look windblown here. it’s the
nature of New Mexico. Windblown enchantment.
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Mo.
“the profound human choice….To seek to know better, to
love it, or
agree to its destruction”
that is the Choice.
isn’t it.
yes.
Love,
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i am honored, then, that it comes to you this way.
have such respect for your work
that to me comes from such a singular internal place
in you
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I’m going to order Active Hope, they don’t have it at the bookstore (someone bought it before I got there!) or the library and I’m going to get my own copy of World as Lover…I keep wanting to underline things and write notes in the margins. I haven’t wanted to do that for a long time for some reason. I did pick up Daring Greatly by Brene Brown today and while standing at the bus stop read… “We’re hardwired for connection–it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives. The absence of love, belonging and connection always lead to suffering.”
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yes. the Macy stuff. it speaks so precisely to my stuff.
so many things she writes and clarifies through her
sense of Buddhism, my sense of Buddhism which i receive
as such a loving “YES!”. i was ready to become an
eco terrorist.
and Brene Brown…can connection also mean to the Wild?
i am connected to my children, their children, yes, but
also and sometimes MORE, i am connected to the Earth. Sky
Land, all my relations….this is where i am and always
have been, Most connnected.
????
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Joanna Macy makes so much sense to me. I keep finding myself thinking, yes and yes and yes. I think it’s the act of being connected that is important, that we belong somewhere.
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as your comment here clicked in i was talking to my
granddaughter, Alyssia, mother of the 3 year old Julian
both of whom are in the Navy in California. She related
how she brined the turkey, cooked it breast down to
retain juices, and then at the last minute put it in a
Bag, then became anxious and took it OUT of the BAG etc.
etc. etc. and we laughed a lot. she said, finally at
one point, “i hate thanksgiving”. how funny. and i told
her of this conversation going on here and the conversation was
connected.
HOW, we, she and i, wondered, HOW do we connect as
family?
HOW do we belong?
meaningful.
and i think in this moment how i belong to you. how
because of
need,
you
belong
to me.
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That belonging, another yes, very much a yes. Sending you a hug and love…
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you have captured fragility and strength in one being, which is what we all are when we “show up”, which is so important. you have caught something so big in this handful/hand full.
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Hello Grace, I always get so much from your blog, from you and the other followers. I have just gone back and caught up; I am full of admiration of your mind/work/life and the wonderful integrity of your thoughts that you share with us. Just lots of love coming from me to you and everyone around you.
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so…what matters now is what i can find to do with
where i’ve gotten to…..what it IS in the day to day…
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HEY Robyn…am happy you leave your tracks here. i like
very much knowing that you are watching…keeps me
on the Road….and i receive that lots of love with
gratitude.
A Goat Post will be coming soon. know you like that.
love,
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I see a new life in her, a gestation in full bloom….
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Just beautiful in a wild, worldly way. i love the colors and the composition, the hair and the tree.
Just Beautiful.
Of course the conversation here is a mini-book of its own. Profound.
I’ve enjoyed it all.
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fragile… but beauty too…
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i cannot stop looking at this…………
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i think she would like to stand at your Sea
at Staithes……..
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the Allness of Who She Is… haven’t read all the comments, but the cloth speaks volumes… I love how strong and tender she is at the same time.
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Hi Grace, I see 2 hands holding a new life in gestation…
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i’m not at all sure about that part of it…will have to
wait and listen
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what looks like it could be a tree in the above pic is
really a clump of Native Grass…one of my beloved things
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Thank You Martine…i was just over at your blog yesterday, looking at all you are doing….you are Lucky.
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i think it’s a good way to go through life…
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i just don’t know
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windthread 
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