BEAST REALM: pondering the oneness

We begun this week with a real curiosity into what distinguishes humankind from the so called “beasts”. Aren’t we animals too? 

There is too much to explore here, just like in every other realm we have touched on. So I surrender to the fact I can’t do it all, and make a hopeful commitment to this tradition whereby if we revisit each of these realms each year, we will glide our awareness over more and more. Next year, maybe feathers, fur, silk, and more. 

WOOL DYE

Animals provide such gifts, like wool from their coat. A simple fun activity was dyeing a section of an old wool blanket in natural food colouring and vinegar hot water solutions. It felt safe for my daughter to get her hands in. And now we have beautiful coloured felt to make some creations. 

What could you make with wool?

FARM 

Koa had a desire to milk a cow to understand where her cows milk comes from as opposed to her soy milks. So we made it out to Golden ridge farm as a last minute easy access to domesticated farm animals. We help baby ducklings and chicks. We fed goats, kids, lamas and horses. It was a kitschy but necessary experience that I feel sad is so far from our current lives. 

We milked a cow and it felt wrong because she was mostly empty from feeding her calf earlier, and I connected it to when my kids have drained my breastmilk. 

My son was sitting on the ground and a beautiful horse reached over the fence and dragged his beautiful huge nose along my sons face. I wonder what it was like for him. The whole experience tapped me into the fact that I feel scared when I’m with other animals. I felt how unpredictable they are maybe because I don’t spend a lot of time with them. They feel so foreign. And so they draw a huge sense of mystery within me, mainly unease but this desire to understand and this acceptance that I can never fully understand. Whilst I appreciate all the scientists and trackers who research animals, I just feel like there is more magic to it. Just like with research into humans, I don’t feel like we will ever be able to predict what and why we are. To find such hard truths is to not understand the mystery in spirit. 

What is your response to animals? 

ROCKPOOLS 

Our closest access to an array of wild animals is the ocean. Whilst im playing defence for my son trying out every shell led animal in his mouth, this week, dear friends have led my daughter through exploring the rockpools. They each have their own wonders they wish to share with her. In particular it’s different types of slugs and their slime. But we don’t touch the blue ones - blue in nature is often some kind of warning. 

What is your memory of rockpools? 

MAGPIE

One night I had a dream or a thought that I wanted to feed a magpie and befriend it, so I wouldn’t get swooped this season and so I could have a birdie friend. The next morning I went out to collect my laundry from the garden and a magpie arrived. It never has before. It looked and me like - go on, give me the food you were offering. So I went inside and so began our regular feeding visitations. A few days she would show her mate who I was - as if to say - do not swoop this one, and if I die, come here for food. And this week (after months of visiting us), she finally brought her juvenile bub to us. People say not to feed birds. I’m grateful for our relationship and I’m curious to see where it takes us. 

How do you interact with your local birds? 

As far as I can see, this week we have learnt that animals or beasts have so much to teach us. They remind us of primal instincts including caring and fear. I feel like their gift is softness. And in a mysterious way, they connect us to the oneness of creation. 

But I truly do wonder. 

What do you think makes us different? 

With gratitude,

Clio

b e a s t s  

. 

relating in a way of

tending not only to receive

but to revere

the tamed and the wild

I wonder

about you

day and night

a mirror

traversing the unknowable  

foreign of the same kind  

PLANT REALM: honouring all of life

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 

. . .