Saturday, June 28, 2008

• As you are reading this, my mouth is full of cobbler made with the finest, ripest, hand picked with love, black raspberries.

  (picture to be loaded here later)

  A friend of mine who lives in the country invited us to share in her bounty of black raspberries.  While we were picking, she explained how picking black raspberries has become a spiritual practice full of deep meaning (which you can now read on her blog.)  I talked her into writing it down and sharing it because it was so beautiful and helpful.  Essentially, she gently caresses the berries one at a time and gathers only the ones that fall right into her hand.  As she does this, she respects that there are some that are not ready to be plucked, not ready to be tasted, not ready to be eaten.  She accepts their "not readiness" and at the same time embraces her own "not readiness."  A person could feel stuck or on the verge for a lifetime.  But this practice encourages her to trust in that all things truly come in due time and being in the moment even when the moment is a waiting moment.  It is a practice of trusting the universe and herself.

  This excited me.  I immediately applied this to ideas.  Like the berries, ideas also need to ripen. As an artist, I have so many ideas that come through.  Yet, how many times do I rework and rework something or revisit symbols, images or techniques conceived of years ago only to finally be able to successfully communicate what needed to come out.  Why do I expect that birth should happen at conception?

  I wondered allowed what things needed to be in place in order for an idea to ripen.  She thought that nothing needed to be in place.  It should be effortless.  This keeps coming back to me now.  Is it effortless that the black raspberries grow?  Is it effortless that the sun shines?  I mean each involve exchanges of energy that I would say is "right effort" in the Buddhist sense, meaning it is just something that is done with no thought about the result or awareness of the "plant self" or "sun self".  It just is the way things are.  But the black raspberries cannot ripen without proper sun, rain and soil.  So what are the sun, rain and soil for ideas?

  Sun, to me that would be the equivalent of time.  That seems pretty obvious snce we measure time by the sun.  Rain...hmm...I think rain would that which inspires us.  This could be connections with people through conversations and observations, with other art or ideas that have come before or any number of things.  The soil would have to be the spirit.  Nothing can grow in barren soil just as nothing can grow in a depleted spirit.  There is no rushing.  There is no forcing.  There is only accepting and trusting the natural flow of the universe.  Now, if I am not mindful and get preoccupied and ignore my values and spirit and allow myself to become ungrounded, I can miss a ripe berry and it could fall to the ground or get snatched away by a bird or never ripen at all.  Which is okay.  It is all part of the life cycle.  But, it is best to stay aware. It is just what we do.  To check in with the berries every day to see which ones are ripe.  Then, only pick those which fall into your hand with the most gentle of caresses.  Effortless.

  I swear I could have picked black raspberries for the whole entire day without tiring pondering these musings.  I have learned but very often forget that as an artist, when in doubt, look to nature.  I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have been reminded of this.  Thank you my dear friend. 

  As I sign off, we are welcoming a storm.  We have opened all windows and invited the heavy wind in our house to cool and freshen things.  Soon, the scent of cool liquid spraying hot asphalt will accompany the smell of black raspberry cobbler.  There is nothing better than being with a storm as it starts up.  Ah, summer. 

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