In a week where the boom and burst of news cycles is mostly boom and burst, I’ve been thinking about what might be a fitting creative retreat for this week: a quote, a poem, a passage? All in good time. For now, I’ve rested upon an old time reliable: a list. But this is a special kind of list, written in the ink of tenderness. It is written not with anything to do in mind, there is nothing to cross off or feel obligated to, but as a list it is here to serve a soft scoop reminder of what is already at hand, and perhaps, gently nudge our hearts just a fraction, larger. It is a list I am calling ‘The Inventory of Gladness’.
I think of gladness in golden, and I have chosen it for its hue. Joy would be a wildly expansive choice. Perhaps crimson. Possibly red. But there are many times in our lives when joy can feel just out of reach, requiring too much of whatever energy might be available to us. But gladness seems more timid, something that can warm the heart, even if just a tad. It seems a little closer too, in sight —the first shots of a snowdrop breaking through the hardened earth, the arrival of a robin to the crumbs you tossed earlier in the morning —or accessible to the touch: that wayward curl at the back of your toddlers neck; the way real butter glides like a golden slip under the knife; real butter, the Irish kind.
To be glad for the small things is to behold what they enable too: locating wonder in the simple rituals of a daily, ordinary extraordinary life. Perhaps these moments of gladness are not the raging epiphanies of joy, nothing of epic or monumental proportions, but are rather like thin, fresh puddles to splash in when we need to dip into play. Gladness is welly boots in the rain.
So this week’s creative invitation is to make your own Inventory of Gladness.
What would you select? Try to get to the specific. Granular detail will help you notice even more.
I recommend you give yourself five minutes for this. But you don’t have to fill all those minutes. Maybe you will be glad for the space, or the invite, or the simple idea of a list. If you are stuck, begin there.
Afterwards, notice if anything has shifted for you, in how you engage with what is around you, and also inside you. What happens when you give gladness a name?
Happy inventory making.
Feel free to share one item from your inventory of gladness in the comments below.
For paid members of The Wild Edge.
23rd January, Thursday: 8-9pm GMT Owl Hour- Creative Practice
(Gold Membership) 31st January, Friday 7-8.30pm: Imbolc Salon: An evening of poetry, writing and creative ritual. Or tickets here.
6th February, Thursday- 8-9pm GMT: Owl Hour- Creative Practice
9th February, Sunday: Poetry Salon 6-7pm GMT
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