five things friday: bird songs, Facebook header, gentle failure
Published: Fri, 05/12/23
May 12, 2023
Hello there,
A lone bird woke me just as the sun was breaking the night darkness. Too early to be up for me but not too early for this bird to share its enthusiasm for the day. I tried to be annoyed but instead took the invitation to enjoy the early morning light and additional bird songs that are coming with it.
These Friday things may not be charming bird songs but I hope they hold some enjoyment for you in a different way.
1. The unexpected failure can be more interesting than the expected success.
I was attempting a textured surface on paper but I
think I applied the structure paste too thickly. When I added the wet pigment the crackly texture crackled right off. I love what is left behind though.
As someone who can try so hard to avoid failure that I miss the discovery of risk, this was gentle reminder that taking a chance can lead to wonderfully different things.
2. I am eagerly anticipating this. Martin Shaw is one of my favorite storytellers. I have had the pleasure of experiencing him live a couple of times, expanding and enchanting my sense of the world and myself each time. While a livestream is not the same as being in the room with a master, I will happily cozy up to my computer Monday evening to get a chance to be his audience again.
3. I changed my Facebook header this week. Not the least bit noteworthy I know, and yet it was one of those very mundane moments that marked a tender threshold.
I put this image up as my header after my mom died a little over two years ago. Found in her things where these tiny cups with all of our names. There is even a sweet little stand for them. They became a little shrine to a family who had lost its center.
There have been many times I went to change the image but I couldn't. Didn't feel right. Maybe it was a subtle public announcement that only I understood that I was in mourning. And then last week I switched it. Similar the the bracelet story, in the tiny moment of changing cups for wisteria I realized my grief had shifted again. No longer a raw landmine but more shifting current.
Grief and healing have their own timing. Its softening often happens so incrementally we don't notice. Then a moment a happens, a tiny, ordinary, extraordinary moment happens that reveal you are in a different place.
I think of my mom everyday. I miss her everyday. I still have unexpected waves of tears show up at inconvenient times. What grief has given me over time is a relationship with her non physical presence. It does not replace her physical, living self but it eases the missing and is healing the loss.
The tiny, mundane moments sometimes hold the world.
4.
A memory from years past that still holds truth.
Welcome the wisdom of sadness and allow and the sacred water of tears to release, let go, and clear away.
5.
A blessing for your week:
(Earth Magic Oracle by Steven Farmer)
May what you release make space to for welcomed growth and nourishment.
