1.
Fourth of July Fireworks — collage art by Stella Kalaw
From the Community
I came across Stella here on Substack, somewhere in the comments section of one of
posts… as it happens, she’s a fellow Filipino from Manila who no longer lives in the motherland, and she went to the same university as my mum.Anyway, I wanted to show her work before I discovered all of that. I find her collage work so engaging. They’re quirky and slightly off-kiltre, and they tell a story (about anything you like) through the forms she creates in the compositions, as well as the images themselves.
In one post, she shares a discovery that ‘you don’t have to glue anything down!’ (👇🏽) What a revelation, indeed!
More recently she also wrote about the process of ‘letting it go', when a composition just isn’t quite flowing. (👇🏽)
I appreciated both of these posts this week. They reminded me that:
I don’t have to do this. There is no ‘shoulds’ or ‘musts’. Just a choice.
The picture is just a picture. And then there’s what happens, and staying present enough to notice.
2.
A Mid-February Sky Dance — a poem By Richard Brautigan
From the Library
A Mid-February Sky Dance
Dance toward me, please, as
if you were a star
with light-years piled
on top of your hair,
smiling,
and I will dance toward you
as if I were darkness
with bats piled like a hat
on top of my head.
Richard Brautigan (1967)
—
I have been waiting for an opportunity to share this for nearly a year. It’s mid-February again. We’re a couple of weeks past the Imbolc - the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the beginning of spring, when underneath us there is a secret flurry of activity, amassing the critical energy that brings about Spring.
Anyway, everything I’ve read of Richard Brautigan has given such delight, to a degree I’m sure I’m not allowed to keep to myself. And so I hope you enjoy this short poem 🖤.
3.
On growing up and growing whole — a quote from Rebecca Solnit
From the Internet
This quote showed up in this last week, and I wanted to share this with you accompanied by a short reflection:
"Growing up, we say, as though we were trees, as though altitude was all that there was to be gained, but so much of the process is growing whole as the fragments are gathered, the patterns found.
Human infants are born with craniums made up of four plates that have not yet knit together into a solid dome so that their heads can compress to fit through the birth canal, so that the brain within can then expand. The seams of these plates are intricate, like fingers interlaced, like the meander of arctic rivers across tundra. The skull quadruples in size in the first few years, and if the bones knit together too soon, they restrict the growth of the brain; and if they don't knit at all the brain remains unprotected.
Open enough to grow and closed enough to hold together is what a life must also be. We collage ourselves into being, finding the pieces of a worldview and people to love and reasons to live and then integrate them into a whole, a life consistent with its beliefs and desires, at least if we're lucky."
— Rebecca Solnit
I’ve been reflecting on the last few weeks. Our home of the past 4+ years has just gone on the market, and we’re in the process of buying a new home in a new town about an hour away from here. At the same time, my workspace - which in itself is something of a collage - is also going through an enormous tectonic transition.
The level of ‘out-of-my-depth-ness’ that I’m experiencing is unreal. It’s deeply disturbing and anxiety-inducing. I find myself either balling up tight and hard, unable to let anything in… or collapsing under the apparent pressure like a soggy Weetabix.
And this little piece of wisdom shows up, as a reminder that I am growing into wholeness. So I have no idea how I’m going to do ‘this’ called life… but I am here.
SOME LIGHT RELIEF
Maybe it’s just me, but this week (and by extension perhaps this post…) has been a little heavy, so here’s an offering of light relief.
Stella's collages are magnificent! Another great issue that fills me with inspiration!
Another wonderful entry! Wishing you the best during the transition you’re going through - I find that those disruptions to routine can be so jarring, and I definitely react in the same ways you describe. It’s so disruptive. Just picture yourself in a year from now - you’ll have gotten through all of it and come out on the other side. Hang in there!