Pressed leaves - - so easy to collect & so simple to compost. National Geographic, not so much. Each year, eleven pounds of images from around the world. But last week, it was time for this collection of stories and images to move on, to mix and mingle with holiday wrappings and old bills. Our children did not plow through them, as I once did, and no library wanted them. This 450 pound collection was, in fact, a burden from another era. When I returned from the recycling center, I was not surprised to experience an increased flow of fresh air in my studio - - The shelves, lighter and more open, an invitation. We were managing the clutter we brought home from my mother-in-law's house, which we had cleared out three years ago. It was time to say farewell to her pressed leaves, National Geographics and her dog-eared rhyming dictionary. The
compost absorbed all of it, including the expectations of creating the perfect turn of phrase in a gift card, thank you letter or speech at the garden club. In our pile, the leaves & this book will nourish new growth in a new year & maybe even inspire new ways of thinking post 2020.
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I believed & it was true. Wear a pair of black leather boots & you, too, will feel powerful & confident. It's been five years since I first purchased these on consignment, polished them up and faked it till I made it. They worked their magic. After wearing them a few times, I started to actually believe in my power - - not in a dominating way, but in a deep visceral kind of way that flowed from my fascia and radiated outward. These boots lead me to the edge of my known world.... If I step off the path, I might harm this ecosystem, but if I stay on it, I may never come to understand it. What if it's not even a binary question. Maybe it's about stance and learning to tread more lightly. And
maybe there is more power in a backward glance made with curiosity, wonder & the core of who I am, than there is in a pair of boots & a projection of false confidence. Sometimes a gal has to shake things up a bit. If, for example, she can't actually walk in other people's shoes, she can at least experiment with wearing her own in new & different places. Or, perhaps, not wear any at all. It turns out, for example, that feeling cold wet leaves beneath your toes while staring at your camera is quite luxurious. I've been needing these experiences this past week, because while those in power continue to belittle women's voices, & the voices of those without power, I struggle to find mine. The dress, like so many past beliefs is gone, blowing in the wind, beautiful but not useful anymore. And I recline on a wood pile, wearing those cool black boots from The Pink Alligator & a black shirt dress from Revolution. It all feels quite liberating... Each step in my own shoes brings me closer to what I love -- finding balance & power at the landfill & in my compost pile, each photograph transforming the discord & pain I feel in the world around me into something else entirely. Now the demitasse, filled with coffee, sits on the coffee grinds from which it came, connected and real. In times like this, it helps to stay real. And then I remembered how powerful I felt when we first installed our solar panels in 2010. For less than the cost of most new cars, we could actually generate power - - 56,000 Kwh to date, in fact. So I created this self portrait, wearing those same black boots & holding a mug of coffee made by a good friend. This is real. And this is real too. So after the photo shoot at the panels, I filled in my ballot & delivered it to Town Hall, feeling very very powerful. I hope that on November 3, 2020 you will vote as if your life & the lives of your children's children's great grandchildren depended on it. Because here's the deal. If you can, do. If you believe in your power, you can generate power, not just with solar panels and your vote, but with the very core of who you are. I'm a mover & maker, so I learned to embroider so that I could share Whitman's poem, This Compost, and the oh so powerful final stanza... Now I am terrified at the earth, it is that calm and patient, It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions, It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless successions of diseased waste, It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor, It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops, It gives such divine materials and accepts such leavings from [us all]. -Walt Whitman, This Compost (From Leaves of Grass) Renewal is the operative word. Like all this stuff about demitasse & cotillion dresses & going deeper into who we are & what we believe. It's so much easier to explore when feeling powerful. Afraid
of what might happen this week? Be a tree & remember, if you can, do. Connect with the earth. Stand tall. Be Real. |
Evelyn R. Swett
reframing the narrative in community and with myself, finding transformation and joy in the mess of it all Let's ReFrame!
is a somewhat regular 'viewsletter' that hopefully inspires joy & transformation. It will include links to recent blog posts & updates about my work. Oh, and I promise I won't share your information (that would be so uncool) and I don't actually do promotions, but that text is required. Archives
December 2020
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