Hello all,
Today on The Wild Edge, I am reflecting on the power and necessity of sanctuary, not as respite or retreat from the world, but as a place to build our capacity and resilience.
I have written a piece about how even the smallest gestures, tiny sanctuaries in the day, can accrue to a life woven with awareness, and presence.
To support us this week, I have also recorded a guided meditation, honouring one of our main tools of gesture, our hands.
And below too, some news of the next wave of Owl Hours- Creative Co-working sessions which are starting tomorrow, plus our next writing sanctuary and the upcoming seasonal salon.
Blessings and thanks to you,
Clare.
Tiny Gestures
What might it be to build our day by gestures: small pockets of homecoming to our inner lives; to tuck our hand around a moment and really take it in? A fleeting temple of sound? A current of the utterly unfamiliar travelling alongside? Our gestures are a beckoning towards.
Yesterday, among a dense thicket of willow, six rhythmic calls, then five, then six. The Great Tit was awake. I cup my attention around them, and in that tiny moment feel all the presence of the world cup me back.
In these grey long days, where winter has outstretched, still the daffodils insist; a yellow plumage cutting the winter into flight. I move a small pot of blooms to my front door, and now, as I cross the threshold, their bright heads signal the ever present cause for hope.
There are other moments too: the tiny gesture of lighting a tapered candle each morning on the kitchen table, and day by day, noticing how time can be measured in flame. Or how, the other day, lingering my hands under the hot tap, the warmth was a reunion on my skin, the skin a doorway to the kind of touch which holds the moment as a treasure.
This is the sensual, sensuous life, ourselves a sanctuary for our own beholding.
In a world which demands our attention, what might it be to attend instead to these tiny gestures; the cherishing of the simple amidst the complex; seeking out the ecstatic colour of the day? And in a world which tries to sell ourselves from own skin, what might it be to linger on our own touch, really feel our palms meet each other as the warmth of our own universe collides; this concentration of our presence back to ourselves. Our bodies, our breath, our skin, our touch, our taste, our warmth; each a sanctuary opening ourselves to ourselves, and in that opening we find a world, tethered as we are to every living thing.
The hour is a thread with which to stitch these gestures, and the day becomes a patch, a picture. Day by day, the tapestry of our lives is woven with thousands of gestures of presence, touch by touch, sound by sound, stitching us back into place, our attention a tiny sanctuary for our own being, where we find aliveness pressing us back awake.
The hour is not just an hour then, but a homecoming.
And the day is not just a day, but an art.
What might our lives become then, day by day, living by these tiny gestures; altars to the beauty of what is always becoming? Life as art, gesture by tiny gesture, pockets of time as treasures, rich as we are.
A Gesture of Connection.
I’d like to invite you into a short practice with me. It is a communion with one of our main aids of gesture, our hands. You will need to be in a place where you can safely bring your hands together and close your eyes for a moment, so if you are driving a car or holding a baby, perhaps wait until later, your attention is needed elsewhere.
You can find the recording below.
A reminder about what is coming up on The Wild Edge.
Owl Hours - Creative Co-working sessions.
Starting tomorrow.
Monday 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd, 6-7pm Irish/ UK time.
The zoom link is on our notice board, and I will email a link tomorrow to members.
Writing Sanctuary- Guided Journaling and Reflection
Sunday 8th March, 6-7pm Irish/ UK time.
Next Celtic Seasonal Salon- Spring Equinox March 20th
And, our next Seasonal Salon, The Spring Equinox, is on Friday 20th March (7-8.30pm Irish/UK time). Tickets included in Gold Membership (Gold Members- I will email you a registration link), or can be purchased here.
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