Wake Up Practices

Artists need a lot of mental energy to make art. We need to be fully awake, passionately curious, and open to joy. It's a kind of wild awareness that allows a "helpful obsession" for our art. When I am awake, I have a natural rhythm throughout my whole day, pulsing between focused attention and floating openness. I pulse as distractions arise, and as low energy slows me down; it's a kind of steady heartbeat that carries me with equanimity and perseverance.

When I'm not awake, I can't seem to make art at all. And so this week I'm using a variety of Wake Up Practices.

Agenda:

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Tiny tasks list

3. Review-Prepare-Flow

4. Clean the studio

5. Waking up!

Ayathrem

Ayathrem is the fourth Gahambar celebrated by the Zoroastrian community, who honor the six seasons of the year with six Gahambars - the word gahambar means "proper season". Each of these six festivals is celebrated for five days, and each honors one of the six material creations: The heaven, water, earth, flora, fauna and man.

Ayathrem celebrates the creation of plants, the time to sow winter crops, and the season when the herds come home from pasture. It takes place each year from October 12th through the 16th.

Agenda:

1. Recite prayers
2. Make Ghormeh sabzi (beef & herb stew)
3. Sow fava beans and plant garlic

Indigenous People's Day

Happy Indigenous People's Day! Some people celebrate the second Monday in October as Columbus Day, but many of us prefer to honor instead the people who were here in the Americas for centuries before Columbus "discovered" it. 

Many cities are finally making the name change official, adopting Indigenous People's Day to celebrate the people and their culture, and also to reflect on their ongoing struggles in this land. The celebration today includes powwows, drumming, dancing, Native American foods and crafts.

Agenda:

1. Skywoman falling

2. A note about appropriation

3. Land and people acknowledgement

4. Drumming

Third Quarter Moon of October

Photo by Alan Gillespie

Today is the Third Quarter Moon: This waning moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work and self-care.

Agenda today:

1. Read "How to Manifest"

2. Renewal plan

3. Generosity plan

4. Evaluation House

5. Monthly journal brainstorm

6. Surrender, rest, recuperate

Unity Art for Pollinators, Part Two

I've been seeking unity with pollinators, and I'm ready now to take the next steps, which is to plant habitat. Fall is the best time to do that.

Native pollinators need appropriate native plants, those that are indigenous to our specific geographic area: Here in the Willamette Valley, we live in the Pacific Lowland Mixed Forest ecosystem (same as the Puget Sound Valley). Before cultivation, we had dense coniferous forests, prairies that supported open stands of oaks, and wetlands with swamp or bog communities. The original, natural vegetation provided continuous cover and adjacent feeding opportunities for wildlife, including pollinators.

We can no longer assume that nature "out there" somewhere is taking care of the wildlife. We need to turn our urban and suburban areas into habitat, starting with native pollinator gardens. Imagine a pollinator-friendly neighborhood, with native plants in bloom through as much of the growing season as possible, from one yard, patio, front porch to another! Imagine birds, bees, and butterflies welcomed back to our cities!

“What if each American landowner made it a goal to convert half of his or her lawn to productive native plant communities? Even moderate success could collectively restore some semblance of ecosystem function to more than twenty million acres of what is now ecological wasteland. ... we can create this country’s largest park system. It gives me the shivers just to write about it. Because so much of this park will be created at our homes, I suggest we call it Homegrown National Park.” 

― Douglas Tallamy, Nature's Best Hope

Agenda: 

1. Prepare to create pollinator habitat

2. Gather plants and seeds:

3. Start seeds and transplants

4. Planting milkweed and lupine

5. Butterfly craftivism

Mehregan

Mehregan (pronounced ‘meh-re-gahn’), is an ancient Persian festival, older even than Zoroastrianism, that began as a feast for the sun god/dess, Mehr.

Mehr (also known as Mithra) is responsible for knowledge, love, friendship, promises, and the light. The word "mehr" in Farsi means kindness.

When Zoroastrianism took hold in Persia, in around 1400 BCE, Mehr was reduced from a God to an angel, but the festival of Mehregan remained. Now Iranians celebrate it usually on October 1st or 2nd, as a day of thanksgiving and the start of the second half of the year (Noruz, in March, is the start of the first half). People decorate their houses, put on new clothes, and visit their relatives and friends, wishing each other a good harvest, long life, and happiness.

Agenda Today:
1. October thoughts

2. Journal queries

3. Read "Root and Ritual"

4. Make Aash-e-jo (barley soup) with lamb
5. Set the table
6. Fire