creating from smaller vessels
cup half-full, heart full
Gathering with my friend Zen Alladina and dear company for a Cup Half-Full retreat, we practiced creating from smaller vessels, working with the energy and countenance we carried that day, and it felt like being held. Adding new layers to what I’ve learned of tea history as Zen shared some history of the vessels that hold our tea and the symbolism of heaven (lid), earth (plate), human (vessel) deepened how I think about this dear experience of tea.
“Anything can happen with a loose pile of raw pages. [...] What if I arrange the fragments according to their seeming dispositions—here is the hope, here is the fury, here are the values in between, is that the story? [...] What if I leave the pieces by an open window and a breeze blows in and the fragments rearrange themselves and the truth is finally found right there—in the accidentally adjacent? What if my raw material runs thin? What if I am forced to start again, to forge, to find new fragments?”
CJ Hauser
Navigating my life with new physical limitations, I’ve been learning about how to create from smaller vessels; to seek out smaller pockets of time even when my “raw materials run thin” and let whatever I make with the energy I have be enough.
As we made our way through the workshop, I began to dwell on things that may appear small or incomplete (like the way a crescent moon appears but a sliver), yet remain whole. This brought to mind how beneath the smallest sprout, roots grow unseen, stretching out in every direction, this exploration came while working with cut-puts from our color/journal/cut/collage sheet and an old Anthropologie catalog I had on hand nearby.
My thanks to all who joined in for our cozy workshop and made it what it was, and to my dear friend Zen whose partnership always conjures forth something that brings me glimmers hope in a world that hurts.
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