Gathering seeds #10
10 things on my mind this month
Ever since I placed a jade, turtle-shaped artefact in my altar, my consciousness has been pre-occupied with the nature of this creature. I notice its presence moving through my mind when I meditate or simply reflect on my life at ungodly hours. I keep thinking of the story about the rabbit and turtle that I learned in school, much like every other kid in the world. The fact that this slow, enduring little turtle won over the arrogant rabbit has got me mulling on it more seriously than ever before.
June has been pretty much about this. But it has also been about opening myself up to hope more fully and moving at the pace of trust as I return to the foundational question, with a scientific patience and poetic surrender: what does it mean to be alive and make meaning as a human in this moment?
On that note, here are 10 things that are supporting this inquiry lately:
This essay by the English writer Charles Foster has cleared a space of hopeful silence in me. The kind where you’re confronted with a vast horizon that invites instead of scares you into timidity. It’s such a relief to finally find a thinker who delves into the ‘what’ of being human than the ‘how’. It reminds me that creativity, our power to wield agency through symbolisms, is the true gift given to all of humanity. I am, however, left at the end with wanting more; and maybe that’s what Foster intends for his readers, to be left at the edge of their seat, seeking more answers.
Real Life Mag has launched a new column called ‘new feelings’ featuring essays from writers that explore emergent dimensions of affect in the age of digital media. Think of emotions like ‘ungooglebility’ , ‘unfleshing’ or ‘reality disappointment’— this stuff is for real.
I put myself to sleep the other night while listening to Rupert Sheldrake talk about how the Universe remembers everything. Grateful to all the vivid dreams it brought me <3
I can’t stop thinking about this painting by French artist Henri-Camille Danger ‘Les Lucioles’ (the fireflies) made in 1896. There’s something about the jewel-like tones of blue dotted across the haunting green abode of the sensual fireflies that feels so inviting.
I’ve recently started reading Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Languages of the Night’ featuring various critical essays by her on the genres of fantasy and science fiction. Her bold, deeply human yet transcendental storytelling has inspired my practice so much. In her essay ‘Why America is afraid of Dragons’ this particular line really struck out to me:
I am currently in love with the works of the artist Katie Patterson. One particular work that I’m particularly drawn to is ‘Fossil Necklace’: A necklace comprising one hundred and seventy fossils carved into spherical beads. It is a string of worlds, with each bead representing a major event in the evolution of life through the vast expanse of geological time. From the monocellular origins of life on Earth to the shifting of the continents, from the extinctions of the Cretaceous period triggered by a falling meteorite to the first blooming of flowers, Fossil Necklace charts the development of life on our planet. What’s interesting about this is how it also reminds me of prayer beads or japamala, often used by spiritual practitioners to enter into deeper states of meditation.
I keep returning to this soft manifesto by the artist Courtney Cassidy.
Pema Chödrön, in the absolute cutest way, talks about awakening one’s life-energy in this video titled ‘Train like a Jedi’.
A question for the times by T.S Eliot
The ones who believe in and make new worlds possible will save us. Octavia Butler teaches me to keep orbiting my life’s work around the sun of devotion .
xo
