1.
Untitled — photography by James Kriszyk
From the Community
These photos by James Kriszyk reminded me of the poem The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry (below). If you’re new to Three Things Weekly, you’ll find previous posts where we featured James’ work in the links below:
James has been part of Co-Create since its inception with the very first zine. He is also one of the first people to engage in our coaching service which we will be launching later in 2023. In other words, he’s been a gracious guinea pig who has allowed us to explore our offering, and how to structure it to provide the most value. He went through it so you don’t have to.
Watch this space!
2.
The Peace of Wild things — a poem by Wendell Berry
From On and Off the Internet
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
- Wendell Berry
It’s one of my favourite poems of all time - I and everybody else. You can watch below a ‘Poetry Film’ created by Charlotte Ager and Katy Wang, as part of The On Being Project.
If you liked that, there is an entire series of ‘Poetry Films’ on this playlist.
3.
Earth, Metal, Water, Wood and Fire — a creative prompt from ancient healing.
From Us, Somewhere
Last week we published our second Zine, ‘Elemental’. It was based on the four elements commonly known in the West: earth, water, air, and fire - often appearing in alchemical texts and philosophies. In other words ‘ancient science.’
It had me think of the Eastern equivalent, where there are five elements: Earth, Metal, Water, Wood and Fire.
These are known as the 5 Transformational Elements in ancient healing modalities - Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tai Chi, Macrobiotics… and that’s about as much as I feel qualified to qualify.
What interests me is thinking about each of these elements as, well… elemental. Anything and everything is made up of these elements - we could describe a person as ‘a fire cracker’, or a taste as ‘metallic’, or a colour as ‘earthy’. We know that wood furniture makes a space feel a certain way and we feel different by the water than we do in the mountains.
Could you describe your own sense of these elemental elements through your own practice? If this so inspires you, do share what you create with us!
That poetry film was amazing! I've long loved the poem "The Peace of Wild Things" That poetry film really brings it to another level! I've done a little experimenting with stop-motion animation for some haiku shorts. This film is inspiring me to get back into that experiment.
You always have such interesting things to discover each week! Thanks for your work!