I am discovering the heart amidst the full energy that comes with wrapping a year up, family weight and the productive push. In the lead up to the full moon, this week felt like light was pushing up and out… I needed to make things, get things done and fulfill commitments. Commitment was a strong theme here. Following through, persisting and then of course, having that in breath to the out breath.
The second week of our version of Advent (click here to read first week), was all about celebrating plants. For me that included roots, shoots, leaves, sheathes, seeds, pods, flowers, fruit and vegetables. It was all that we came from, all that we are embodying and all that we want to gift. As well as the compost, the death feeding the birth, and so the cycle continues.
I realised that segregating the realms in this way is quite hard. That everything is interconnected. But perhaps this is the practice of celebrating the uniqueness of each separately, because otherwise perhaps we don’t appreciate them. Perhaps.
INDIGO
We crossed over from the mineral to the plant realm by natural dyeing. A mixture of minerals (soda ash and hydro) with plants (reduced indigo) into a vat, to produce this bubbly smelly concoction. It didn’t exactly feel kid friendly. With drop sheets, ventilation and gloves, unfortunately it only made sense for my daughter to watch, or be involved in the shibori tying art. The dipping was our job and it was time sensitive. So no… I’m not going to lie… in the heat of the day with two kids who just wanted to get into the pot or needed loving attention… it was hard.
Was it worth it? Yes. Having my hands in physically making was so satisfying to my creator needs… and allowing my kids to witness and help (even if small) in creating gifts feels so enriching to our lives. And what we get to see on the other side of a sweaty day, is pure beauty. All the patterns, lines and shapes felt like they were stories from the ocean, the cloudy sky and even the night sky. We used beeswax candle drips to create a resist for the night sky stars, or raindrops.
What do you see in the blue?
WEAVING
We held our Weaving with Nature workshop this week too, exploring local native fibres in a coil stitch style. It is a great simple style that allows you to make many shapes, including birds, hats and baskets. With some of the participants interested in dyeing colours, we concocted a beautiful pink with hibiscus petals.
I continued the dyeing at home through the week with my daughter, using beetroot and turmeric as safe dyes for her to interact with. While they aren’t super colourfast, they were a fun relatable activity for us to use what we had in our home for what we needed. I used the golden yellow strands to weave a little star in an afternoon between cooking dinner and cleaning. Again not a skill they can pick up yet, but I love that they can see something come together in a new form from plants we have collected.
What can you create with the plants around you?
HAPA-ZOME
We did even MORE natural dyeing this week with the Japanese art of Hapa-Zome. We bashed some flowers and leaves into some cotton handkerchiefs as gifts. We started by soaking the hankerchiefs in soy milk as a mordant to help bind the plant dye to the fabric fibre. We then collected maple leaves from my dad’s garden and some coreopsis from the road side.
Bash.
Bang.
Release.
Repeat.
It requires more attention to detail and louder sounds than you realise. But again, I feel like my daughter was engaged in persisting or witnessed hard work to bring something to life. We aren’t sure these hankies will last the wash with boogers, but we can re-dye them in the future if need be.
Do you still use hankies or are you a tissue person?
TENDING THE GARDEN OF THE HEART
Tending to the garden at home lately has been daily watering our seedlings, weekly toppling up plant cuttings, as well as giving some more sunshine and hydration to our indoor plant babies. We harvested seeds from our old beans, we collected casurina needles for our green shelter, we picked up fallen bougainvillea. It is a rhythm I am so grateful to have a space where we can give. Give the care they need. And where they don’t survive or thrive, we can attune to looking at their needs.
I attune to my own needs, and this week I needed Zen Thai Shiatsu. I needed to receive bodywork where I could have 90 minutes to myself. I needed presence to breathe, like a plant. I needed deep rest where I wasn’t being pulled at, but I was cradled in the earth, like a plant. I needed to stretch so I could see the light, like a plant. And after, I felt connected to the vessel that I am inhabiting.
I felt less fire overwhelming my head, and more space flushing in my body. The stressful energy that has been tugging at me shifted with a simple giggle. This week I discovered compassion because there was a grounding rightness that I had chosen exactly all of this. Now I need to practice the art of boundaries, AND showing up with love for this existence. The plant realm revealing to me how we are tubes and channels for life to flow through.
How do you tend to your vessel?
With love and gratitude,
Clio
plants
.
a seed lay fast asleep
buried deep
of earth and water
breathing shelter
with a cloudless sky
tainted by our roots
woven complexity
to shine
committed to forgetting
remnants persisting
awake said the sunshine bright
remember said the rain light
and it arose to see
what we chose to be
a channel
always already here
. . .
