Dispatches from the Wilderness
Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest
Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week. A random grab bag of delights!
I know. I've been quiet. I've been waiting to see what unfolds. Sometimes quiet is required in order to hear what the next note in the song should be. And I'm waiting. As I wait, I ponder the stories, the mythologies... What is resonating with me? Do I have time to dive back deep into the stories, lore, their interpretations? Do I have the space required to get the 'downloads' - the messages that come to me through the stories? Time and space, time and space.
When I was young, I was often totally immersed in the world of books. Whatever book I was reading at the time. As I got older, particularly after having children, that time and space for total immersion was... it wasn't even limited - it was non-existent. It was hard to finish even short magazine articles between being used as a jungle gym or a chair and the accompanying sleep deprivation.
Over the Solstice break, I had time to fully immerse myself in a book. It was glorious and wonderful and I loved it... the real world faded away and felt like a strange story when I wasn't reading. The book was a world I wasn't entirely ready to leave when I had to. I have a pile of books, in true librarian form, of course I do. I think I may underestimate how many articles I read though as well.
Articles of interest this week:
Sirens Are Actually Bird-Bodied Messengers of Death, Not Sexy Mermaids
Edward Gorey Was Eerily Prescient (article about new Edward Gorey bio)
The Modern Trap of Feeling Obligated to Turn Hobbies Into Hustles - this one in particular resonates with me because I started this whole endeavor while I was unemployed and looking to find a way to make ends meet. I made enough to make my money back on the bookplates, but no profit, and certainly not enough to pay for the ongoing website costs, etc. Now I don't need to hustle, but also - there's something really... kinda icky... about trying to, as she calls out in this article, monetize joy. I think there are problems with the productivity culture where everything has to be productive and capitalized on and on and on and on. So... this is one of the things that I've really been sitting with in my quiet...
‘Places of sanctuary, opportunity, menace and death’ – why forests in fiction grip our imaginations
And those were the stand outs - there were a lot of other articles I read as well.
Have been thinking a lot about letter writing as well. How do we use the written word to communicate with each other. This is... sort of a letter to you all - whoever finds it and reads it. If it gets read. It feels like a one-sided conversation. The words go out and mostly get lost in the void of online noise? I don't know. I do know that this only partially fills a desire to have deeper conversations. I don't know what to do about that. I do have some friends I bat ideas around with in various forms, and I'm always afraid that my information dumps, when they really get going, are so voluminous that there isn't really time for any one person to have a conversation about most of them. I'm overjoyed when I can have a good conversation on even one or two of them.
And there's the thing I was thinking of writing about at the beginning of February. Every year around the beginning of February for the last few years, I've celebrated a thing I have come to recognize as "the call to adventure". It's the beginning-ish of the year. From the New Year to early February, I think about what I want to bring into the year, and wonder where my adventures might take me. I listen for that call. This year feels like a big mystery adventure and I don't know quite where it's leading or what the overarching theme is beyond, maybe, trying to create space to allow things to unfold in the way they unfold in the time they unfold...
The next step in the adventure is around the equinox and it's around discernment - having identified a bunch of different potential calls to adventure (or sensing one big theme) - one always has the option to accept the adventure - or not...one way or another there's gonna be an adventure - welcome to life... but one does have some say in what that adventure is and how it plays out... :) If this is all sounding vaguely familiar - that's not a surprise. As I wander through the year, I've sort of framed it up along the lines of a very high level hero/ine's journey (think story arcs). Every six weeks or so, I shift to reflecting around new things in the journey.
So - still waters run... maybe deep? There's certainly movement in my quietness - just letting my small boat ride on what appears to be calm waters that are roiling in the tide.
Medusa's Garden
When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.
Sometimes it's me that needs to stop. I think I will not promise weekly newsletters this year. It has been a dedication and weekly practice for three years to write weekly. I should probably come up with *some* kind of schedule for this year to stick to, but I'm not sure what it is just yet. Maybe it will be weekly after all? And perhaps not. Perhaps I shall stare out at the trees in my yard and long for the wood instead of writing. It does happen sometimes...
Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads
What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.
I have been caught up in the threads and disconnected ends in my life - I have been knitting, a little bit - perhaps to finish a hat tomorrow, then to start on gloves to go with it... Eventually my goal is SOCKS. A girl only needs so many gloves and scarves and hats, but as Dumbledore says "One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."
I have... actually... kind of a lot of socks. A lot of awesome socks, even. HOWEVER. One can never have too many wool socks, especially when one works from home. And everyone always needs good wool socks. So that is my goal for this year's fiber stuff, besides spinning... learning how to knit a decent pair of socks.
Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life
Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.
So for now I continue - how to organize my being. What do I want of this? I don't know, but this little boat continues to ride the tide...
The Tide
Hunter Hall
10 years ago
I wanted to be a Tower.
Now,
now I want to be a Village.
I want to shelter the baker, and
nestle the children in
for summer sweet sleep.
I want to protect the cows
from the rain and wind
and help mold the cheese.
I have gone from cold and barren
to lush and fertile, and
I want all roads
To lead to my hearth;
my home;
my heart.
I want to tell you
that I had to swim
across the ocean
more than once
and slay more than one
Sea Monster
to get here.
I say this so
you realize
that life is not easy
but it is worth
the journey and
the pain
and the tears
that make the ocean
all for us to swim
through and makes the trials and
the laughter and
the swearing;
the curses;
the oaths.
I want to tell you
that being the village
is more
rewarding than
being that
tower that
I struggled
So Hard
to Become.
But, like all things,
the unbecoming
can be
as great
as the
Becoming.