Let’s be creative in community!
Each week in my email newsletter I am asking for input from readers on a project I have begun.
It may be that I ask for a single word. A sentence. A photograph. A doodle.
Inspired by the concept of the microcosm as a reflection of the macrocosm, I wanted to play with what the feelings, thoughts, moment, was for us as a community and create, each week, something from that to share with the wider world.
My intention is that at a point some months from now I will collate and print a zine that brings together all of the projects that have been created in this collaborative way into a special issue of my zine that I will offer to those on my email newsletter for free as a PDF or for the cost of posting in print.
I will add the projects here for public view each week too. If you would like to join in and are not signed up to my email newsletter, I have added a sign-up box at the bottom of this page.
Week Eight
You gave our creature a name. The name is NETTLE. Thank you to Jules for choosing the winning name.
Here is Nettle on their adventure to find out what they would like to choose for a name, based on your suggestions.
Week Seven
Your favourite body part….
I asked for your favourite bone or organ or aspect of your physical body. There is much to be done with the answers to this but, for now, they were used to begin creating a wonderful character who will now feature in the emails and zine on a regular basis, growing with us as more parts are added.
For now, they have two brains and no front part of their horse other than collarbones. They have no ears. They have no hair. They really should have several feet and hands… and they will be added soon. But I think they like to swap over the pairs of hands and feet they use, depending on the task at hand.
They do not have a name yet. That will be part of our next project.
Week Six
I asked you the question: ‘When I say Intuition you say…’
I used your responses to write a letter to Intuition.
Here it is:
And if that is tricky to read, here it is in plain text:
Dear Intuition,
We want to hear you. We so do.
But your voice has become quiet.
Quiet and, for many of us, out of reach. Perhaps that’s because we cannot find you within the shiny landscapes of our digital lives. Perhaps that’s because you’re bored of us, our decisions, our speed, our noise.
Or perhaps that’s because we’re not listening for you at all.
I asked others what they thought of first, when they thought of you.
They said that you are listening and trusting, that you are an inner vision, a gaze of glory. Instinctive. Always there. Hidden. Whispering, Without form. That you are ritual and rhythm, creative and alive, that you are imaginative. That you are peaceful. That you are calm.
They described you as Knowing without knowing, as personal, unique to each of us, and as softer, so much softer, than our thinking minds, that you ride on the pathways of our breath.
You bring to mind magic eyes and owls, pure white cats, dingos, ferrets and bearded dragons.
When I said intuition someone said back this word: WOMEN. That made me smile.
What came to me most was that you are a very quiet voice among a lot of noise. That you are foggy and far away.
Yet that you never stop whispering when we become still.
We will listen, now, to the whispers when they come. Commit to being still enough for your words to land. We will notice the synchronicities in our day, acknowledge the pastimes that allow us to move in a state of flow and, from there, do them more.
We will notice intuition in our bodies, when the body signals ‘yes’ or ‘no’… and allow reflection on that to guide our thinking mind.
We will.
We hope.
Because one thing that is true for every person who I spoke to about you… you’re important to us. Really important. So thank you for sticking around.
xx
Week Five
I asked you for a word that summed up 2021. Here is what you gave me. No words needed (from me!) Except for these two: thank you xx
Week Four
I asked you to tell me a secret or a strange fact about yourself.
Here is our collective box of secrets:
Week Three
I asked you to send me an image of something that you loved right now, excluding other humans in your life.
It’s fascinating, really, what I ended up with to cut out and amalgamate into one image.
Here is the final result:
Week Two
The ‘Creature’ feels like a series of parts rather than a complete being. This is representative of what I see as the experience of many… So much of what is around us wants us to see us as our ‘parts’ rather than as an embodied human who is landed in their body.
The Guru is not necessarily the villain of the piece but I am personally extremely keen to step away entirely from any guru system. I think to take full responsibility for ones-self is a key aspect in stepping out of a fractious, anxious, overwhelmed, addicted, stressed-out experience of our reality.
Week Two Final Creation:
Week One:
This whole project started with me asking those who read my email newsletter to send me 3 words that summed up how they felt that week. Four video-based variations on the outcome can be found below.