Day 64: noticing 🌱

thank you to Elle and welcome, Fran!

Hi, friends –

Thank you so much to everyone who responded so enthusiastically to my news earlier this week and started sharing their stories with me – in case you missed it, I’m working on a book about the project. The idea for it is largely a celebration of the community and all that you have made, on your own and together. If the project has meant something to you, I’d love to hear about it.

And thank you to Elle Luna for guiding us through the river below the river this past week – what a gift. Here’s where you can connect with her, online and IRL:

• Upcoming events with Elle

• Sign up for Elle’s mailing list

• Say hi on social @elleluna

Let’s do a check-in:

How’s your project going? Long-time project participant

Holly Pennington

made a delightfully encouraging KEEP GOING GUIDE if you could use “some tips and tricks for when you’re stuck, bored, or want to quit.”

I also want to share something with you from one of Elle’s posts this week:

“What is wise about letting go of control when making art? I suspect it is because somewhere, deep down, we know an essential process of being alive is happening. In my own practice, after painting canvases that felt riddled with tar-like paint for years, I asked—

Oof. I felt that.

A few questions for your practice –

• Where are you holding on?

• How does it feel to let go of control?

• When do you feel most alive?

• What’s your version of “buying the black paint?”

→ Submit your art for our Day 70 Reel here.

Our theme this week is noticing, with guest writer

Fran Gardner

.

When I asked Fran how she’d like to be introduced, she wrote:

“Fran Gardner curates a sock drawer of ideas that don’t match at frangardner.substack.com. She salts them with photos and poems. Nothing is what you’d expect.”

I think I could take a sock out of her drawer and update my terribly literal bio :)

Here’s Fran:

Dear Ones,

This week, I am writing about noticing. About paying attention. About exploring what the Universe is telling us. This journey can be both arduous and joyful. It is certainly worthwhile.

Begin here

Paying attention is key to any artistic or life pursuit. It’s how we use all our senses. When we pay attention, we see patterns we otherwise would miss. We hear the chimes of the Universe, taste more intensely, let smell spark memory.

Touch

The most elemental of the senses for artists, even more than sight or hearing, is touch. It is how we relate to our materials. We touch the keyboard, the pens, the yarn, the paint, the fabric, the fragile silk of an emerging flower. Touch the sensitive place behind the ear, the pulse point of understanding.

Touch is one form of knowledge. Through it we know our power, the strength of our intellects, the steadfastness of our hearts.

Who we are

Our senses define us: the warrior, the sage, the partner, the watcher. The magician, the witch, the alchemist. We are the ones with the deep knowledge, the heavy intuition. We carry the spark, hidden within the overcoat of our becoming.

Spark
Strike the match now,
Bring the water from the well,
Delve into the soil of the meadow,
Push your breath into the wind.

Write now or draw what sits in your heart—
River flowing, eddies in its bosom.
All the grasses bow the same way
When harvest winds tickle their stalks.

Nibble on the disc of the new moon,
Find a star to anchor your desire.
Feast on nectar and ambrosia
With your old friends, the gods who follow you

Through all the tangled patterns of your trek,
Your trials supplanted, your triumphs on the way.
You will arise, come up ahead, be ready
When finally it’s time to pull the thread.

Unravel the Universe,
Push back the ocean,
Keep the children safe—
And push, push, push.

Flowing forward

This week, resolve to notice more. Don’t be checking your smart phone when you’re on the bus. Look out the window. Every block, find something you didn’t notice before. Look at the tops of buildings, the secret windows. Write down or remember your impressions to add to your creative process.

If you are in your car, eyes off your smart phone. Look about you. Notice the pedestrian, the trees, the details on buildings you saw but never noticed before. Write down or remember. All these impressions are yours for the plucking. Every one makes you more powerful.

Pay attention. Look around you. Notice something new, like the fact that in this airport corridor there are at least six arrows, pointing in different directions. Then think about what you noticed, creatively.

In this photo, does the repetition spark something to write, draw, sing, dance or knit about? What do arrows mean to you? Are they rigid or flexible? Do they try to control your movement, or do they point to possibilities?

Exercise

Sometime today, take 30 seconds to be still. Just a sip of time. Do it now or set a trigger: A smart phone alarm or some small activity that will remind you that it’s time for the exercise, like walking the dog or opening the car door.

Then pause for 30 seconds. Time for about three deep breaths.

Notice everything around you: The quality of the air, the light, scents, your body in space. Then fix your attention on one thing. Something mundane—the pattern of the sidewalk, a tree, a cushion on the couch, a lamp. Your coffee cup. Look at it with fresh eyes and probe its essence. Then notice how you feel.

That’s the exercise. You can take a photo of what drew your attention, or write about it. If it was a sound, it could spur a song.

Just thirty seconds to notice, pay attention, create.

Fran