Fall Flourishing - A Meditation
This weekend, we have the official public launch of, Where the Questions Live (WTQL) at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts with art making, poetry, painting, story reading, among other connective and expressive activities. This launch event is a way for us to let the public know about the project, and offer space for them to share their feedback, ideas and artwork. We are in phase 1 of the project which I call exploration-based / play-based research. It gives us a chance to curiously learn about the world, follow rabbit trail thoughts, and plant metaphorical seeds for where the project could go. This is the phase of the project typically known as exhibition development, and it’s not typically a public endeavor. But as a creative experiment in the process, we are offering an invitation for folks to come along with us and develop the project collaboratively. Then in September of 2019, we’ll launch an exploratory exhibition in the 3,000 square foot Art and Nature Center at Peabody Essex as a culmination to the research phase.
Put loosely, the project explores the human experience within / as a part of the natural world. Our metaphors, our emotions, our actions and our mark making - all a part of the larger whole.
So, although we have been hard at work with the project for a very long time now, this weekend is a high water mark and a new page in a new chapter, and I invite you to come along with us. Among many other elements of the project, we offer a weekly Sunday Meditation on the WTQL website as a way to continue to catalyze and crystalize intentional reflection in and about our inner and outer worlds. Here’s today’s Meditation:
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Fall Flourishing - A Meditation
From this window I look east towards the sea
I can’t see it from here, but I know it’s there
I can see trees who have lost most of there leaves,
with the last specks of color holding on until the snow starts to fall
The glean of the rain-soaked street shines back at me in the morning light
and the sky, although grey, has a pleasant glow to it
It’s the last weekend in November and it’s a season of transitions, endings, and beginnings
and I often have a feeling of waiting this time of year
this feeling often leads me away from my present self, and into an anxious future self
Much of what I know is coming, is sea-like just out of sight,
and the colors that were so vibrant a few weeks ago, have left
We’re entering into darkness with the swing the light takes in these winter months,
but with them come the warm hues of firelight, which not so surprisingly mimic the colors of fall
Take hold of both the past, present and future selves today
and keep them with you and smile to yourself
Imagine all three of them standing together
See these three people as a bird over head might see them
and see the world around you being full of the objects, ideas, and people
that constitute your life - see them all plainly and objectively
Keep all these things in your mind, and then imagine branches and vines
the colors of golden yellows, burnt oranges, and rusty umbers twisting at your feet
their leaves and seed pods opening around you
see them climb up the tree trunks and the sides of buildings
see that the firey colors represent something that has burned away from this last year,
as well as the restful glow of winter, and ultimately the coming color and light of the future year
See that although fall is a season of harvest and quiet, in it’s own way it is a season of flourishing
What do these colors mean to you? What do these plants tell you about yourself? What can you learn from your experience with them? What would each of your different selves, past, present and future say about them? What do you need to burn from this last year and put into the ground as winter arrives? What do you need to pause and reflect on?
A woman I met yesterday at the WTQL launch event told me that Where the Questions Live has given her a place to pause from the constant barrage of the world telling her to go faster and that it feels like a sacred space where she can see her life and the world around her a little more clearly.
To me, her words are a statement of fall flourishing: That amongst the business of her life and the fractured world, she found a place where she feels whole where she feels clear sighted and clear hearted.
Today as you step forward with the past, present and future you
may you find joy and rhythm and clear heartedness
may you find meaning in the colors of late November
may you find a place to pause that feels sacred and connected
may you find fall flourishing in the many spaces of yourself
