I’ve been hiding away with my inky words this winter and falling in love with it all over again. The power of this scribbling habit to get out what’s really going on is quite extraordinary! And you know what? The less I’m able to read it, the better it gets.
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#Wisewords | Today's inky word is 'precious'
At times like these, when the big things of life are all ferociously mixed up and bewildering, I find it helpful to try and remember what is precious.
Fiercely optimistic and faced with the trashing of everything we think we know, it is my tendency to fight for life. I am pigheaded for joy, in that respect.
In March of this year, I had one last face-to-face conversation with my (precious) studio mates on the day we all said goodbye to each other for an undefined lockdown time. Soulful, clever people I enjoy seeking out, and who I would dearly miss. I shared the idea that this period of time might help us define what’s worth preserving. What it is we’re fighting for. True, plenty at the moment is hard to pin down, and trying to figure it out is exhausting.
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#WiseWords | Today's Inky Word is 'Hope'
Hope perches with us, if we let it.
If it is a thing with feathers (as per Emily Dickinson’s lines), then we experience it singing in stillness and quiet. I don’t want to startle this hope so it flies away and leaves, but when I lose my peace then I know that’s probably just what has happened. In panic, I have startled Hope to fly off. Or someone else may have done that – the words of others in fear can be so unbearably cruel, and loud, and can drown our gentleness.
Love, life and death – we can’t really be in control of all that. But we can take responsibility for ourselves and our little corner of the world, to make it kinder, lovelier, more spacious for one another. More hope-filled.
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Creating a New Year Manifesto
If new year has you itching to get down some thoughts and hopes for the year ahead, creating your own mini manifesto could be a great exercise.
I find myself full of seasonal hibernation feelings at the moment, and rather like folding myself into warm corners at home in between the work hours. I may not be quite full manifesto mode, but still find it helps to note down the odd words that float uppermost during a quiet time of sleeping and occasional reflection.
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#WiseWords | Today's inky word is 'Peace'
Sometimes, peace is just peace. And sometimes, it is a whole heap of other things on the way to becoming itself, which, in the end, makes it all the more peaceful.
Peace can be the calm day of a mild summer climate, steady soft breeze, birdsong and grass while you lie on your back looking up at the big, blue sky. Peace, because all is right with the world. But what happens to peace if all is not right with the world? Does it stop existing? No, I don’t think that’s right. Sometimes, there is a more hard won, precious peace to be found.
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#NovemberHope
As the dark evenings draw in for winter, and struggling beneath the heaviness of our national media (in light of a General Election soon with all its awful shouting and bitching), I find myself turning to thoughts I shared I my TEDx talk – that we have to find some much better focal points. What I meant then, and what I still mean, is that if I want my social feeds to remain friendly, social and actually nourishing, then I can take some responsibility for that. So, without overcomplicating anything, last Friday, November 1st, I launched a daily tweet project called #NovemberHope…
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#WiseWords | Today's inky word is 'JOY'
I think about this word not as superficial sheen on life and a burden to keep shiny, but the strong light-filled presence especially when everything has a tendency to be difficult, and which arrives like a gentle hand on your back with the news that this is not how it ends, and how it ends is good, and you get to play a part in that.
There is more goodness to come.
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