Slow Time

Nov16

I’ve recently started working with a book called “Slow Time” by Waverly Fitzgerald. I had first become acquainted with Waverly’s work when I used to subscribe to SageWoman, a magazine devoted to Goddess lore and Earth based spirituality. I was fascinated by her thoughts about the cycle of the seasons and her words resonated on a very deep level within my soul.

The book is set up in a 12-week format and it is filled with exercises and questions that help you explore your relationship with time. Speaking of time, I have been busy getting ready for my annual jewelry show tomorrow so I haven’t exactly been following it by a weekly schedule. I am reading and absorbing and exploring in my own “slow time”.

The subtitle to the book is “Recovering the Natural Rhythm of Life”.

As I was reading Richard Bode’s “Beachcombing at Miramar” last night, these words jumped out at me.

“I believe there is a clock within me, a living clock, and it keeps pace with the beat of the world. I hear the slow ticktock of the planet when I stand in a salt marsh or walk the sands of Miramar, and I lose it the instant I slip behind a steering wheel. The moment I exceed the speed at which I was born to move, I lose the tempo of the natural world and become like a singer who has lost the rhythm of his song.”

This passage stayed with me long after I had read it. As we move through our days faster and faster, here, there and everywhere, work, school, errands, etc., are we losing our natural rhythms? The speed we were born to move? I wonder about these things.

Saturday Morning Tea

Oct27

A misty, rainy fall morning and I open with a quote from one of the oldest books on tea, the Ch’a-Ching (The Classic of Tea) by Lu Yu

“There are a thousand different appearances of tea leaves. Some have creases like the leathern boot of a Tartar horseman, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like the mist rising out a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like fine earth newly swept by rain.”

This morning I am sipping a China black tea called Yunnan Rare Grade. As I talked about in my post on Pu-ehr teas, the tea plants in Yunnan province are actually trees with a bigger, broader leaf. This tea has a lot of golden tips as you can see in the dry leaf photo. Some of the leaf is starting to uncurl when wet but most are still curled up from the rolling process.

A dark, sweet aroma wafts from my cup. I take a sip and my mouth is filled with a spicy earthiness, reminding me of the rich smell of a newly fallen leaf. The Chinese call this a red tea and you can see why. If you enjoy red wine, dark chocolate or even a thick, dark beer, you will like the taste of a Yunnan black tea.

Go Sox!

Dreaming in Color

Oct8

“Let your dreams be as vast as the night sky, as bright as the sunset and as powerful as the wind.” -Anonymous

Filling the Well

Sep28

Just like food and water hydrate and nourish our bodies, there are certain things we can do to nourish our souls. Most are special only to us but some things are common to everyone. I call them “Well Fillers”. Just like we fill our car’s tank with gas and then use the fuel and empty the tank by driving the car, we go through a similar process in our daily lives. Filling and emptying our life energy. I’ve come up with a list of what fills my well.

1. Laughing

2. Listening to an audio book while I drive

3. Sleeping in

4. Making and drinking tea

5. Going for a walk in the woods or on the beach

6. Reading or watching a good story

7. Beading

8. Taking photos

9. Sunday pancake brunch

10. Visiting an art or bead store

My list is a lot longer but you understand. What fills your well?

Being vs. Doing

Sep26

Lately, as summer stands aside for autumn to fully enter our lives, I have been contemplating the cycles and rhythms of life. The ebb and flow of the tides. The growth, harvest and dormancy of the seasons. The waxing and waning of the moon. The life cycle of a butterfly as its cocooning transforms it from a fuzzy caterpillar to a glorious winged soulbird. Life is constantly changing within its cycles of birth, death and rebirth.

This led me to think about the cycles of my own life, especially my creativity. Sometimes I feel bursting full of energy and ideas and my hands can barely keep up with my imagination. This is the “Doing” part of my cycle. At other times I feel empty and don’t want to do anything at all. It is during those times that I feel the need to fill up my emptiness. But first it is important that I sit with the emptiness for awhile before I start filling. This is the “Being” part of my cycle.

As a true Capricorn, I feel the most comfortable when I have a concrete goal and am working (Doing) hard towards that goal, whatever it may be. It is the times when my psyche starts sending me signals that it is time to enter the “Being” part of the cycle that I struggle with the most. Perhaps it is the part of me that thinks that I am not worthy unless I am being productive that finds it challenging to just “Be”. But isn’t the butterfly growing and transforming within her cocoon, her “Being” time? Isn’t the moon still there even though we can’t see it? The tide recedes but look what treasures it brings in.

So, I am sitting with these thoughts and am starting to understand that “Being” is just as important as “Doing. It is part of the cycle of our lives, yours and mine.

What do you think?